


Pride Cometh Before the Fall

by CrazyBeCat, inkheart9459



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015), The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Genre: F/F, Multi, OT4, Older Woman/Younger Woman, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-07-26 23:58:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 53,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7595365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyBeCat/pseuds/CrazyBeCat, https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkheart9459/pseuds/inkheart9459
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Andy just wanted to get away from her feelings. Kara just wanted to get over her feelings. Cat just wanted to drown her feelings in booze. Miranda just wanted to pretend she didn’t have any emotions at all. Unfortunately for all of them life had different plans, rekindling old flames and lighting new ones-- and maybe a kidnapping and a rescue, too. Hell, and they thought National City was eventful before.</p><p>(Also PS: We don't own Supergirl or DWP.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is!  
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Lots of love,  
> CBC and Inkheart9459

Andy smiled as she passed through the crowds that lined the streets, waiting for the parade to begin. She waved to a few who called out, commenting on her very rainbow decked out clothes, and her bi pride flag temporary tattoos on her cheeks. She had an actual flag that she’d take out of her backpack for later.

She loved Pride. Always had, even back in Cincinnati when it was a lot less grand. Nothing was better than a big party where you could be yourself without fear, and the symbolism of fighting back didn’t hurt either. She’d scraped more than a few knuckles defending herself back in high school. She’d bloodied a few noses defending others, too.

She looked around as the National City sun beat down on her, trying to find the perfect place to watch. Andy should have probably looked something up online before coming, but she’d been looking forward to exploring her new home. She’d only been here for a few weeks now, and had spent most of that time getting settled into her new apartment and job, not going out and about.

“Oh gosh! Hi! Andy, right?”

Andy turned to see a smiling face. The woman was off to one side, her eyes sparkling as she waved. “Oh, uh, yea. You work for Ms. Grant. Her assistant?” She still had the habit of carefully noting who the assistants were from when she worked with--well she wasn’t going to think about that right now. Andy stepped out of the way of others walking and smiled.

“Yeah, I’m Kara. It’s nice to finally actually meet you and not just wave you into Ms. Grant’s office.” The girl was speckled with shimmery glitter and fake colored hair pieces. Her shirt was pink, and she was wearing baby blue shorts with a bright yellow belt. Her socks matched, with three vertical stripes of pink, yellow, blue. Her ensemble was finished off with a pair of clean white tennis-shoes.

She grimaced. “Sorry I didn’t remember your name.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. Ms. Grant calls me Kiera anyway, so I doubt you would have heard my real name. New people get confused all the time.” She shrugged like it was no big deal.

Andy gaped at her for a moment. “Ms. Grant does the name thing too?” She shook her head. “At least yours is sort of right. I got called Emily for three months. When I was sitting across from someone actually named Emily. It was a nightmare trying to figure out who she meant for the first little while.”

Kara’s eyes widened. “What? Oh, no, see, it was an accident. She called me Kiera and I didn’t correct her… so, she still calls me Kiera. Are you telling me that you were purposely called by the wrong name for three months?”

“Uh, yeah. But haven’t you tried to correct her any time at all? I got the impression that you’ve been working there for a while now.”

Kara blushed. “It’s complicated. It’s actually strange to hear her say Kara at this point. And, it might actually seem like a reward when Ms. Grant calls me by my name?”

Andy stared at her for just a second, looking over Kara’s entire face, though she was looking away at the moment. Oh, she had it bad for her boss, too. It was plain as day on her face. It seemed Kara was a bit of an open book. Andy took a breath and shook her head, it was time to change the topic. “So, pink, yellow, and blue? Pansexual?”

At that Kara perked right back up again. “Yes! I’m very open about sexuality and attraction. Even before the confirmation of alien species, I felt pansexual would be best. Boy, girl, transgender, intersex, humanoid alien from Krypton, anything and everything.”

“Humanoid alien from Krypton huh? There are two that I know of. Supergirl, or Superman?” Andy laughed at the wide eyed look she got in response. “No wait, let me guess. You’ve probably actually met Supergirl because you work with Ms. Grant. I’ve heard she’s gorgeous, and from the few photos I’ve seen I have to agree. So, is it Supergirl?”

There was that blush again, but the expression Kara wore didn’t quite go with being called out on a crush. Andy couldn’t quite nail it down though.

“Uh, yes, Supergirl. She just seems really nice and all. Who wouldn’t want to be with her?” Kara scratched at the back of her neck and sent Andy a strained smile.

“I’d be cautious, because she’s got super strength and laser eyes. Who knows what that would be like when she lost control during an orgasm. But between you and me?” Andy leaned in close. “I would love to know what it would feel like to be fucked while floating.”

Kara made a pained sound and took a quick step back. “I- uh, wouldn’t you be scared? What if you fell? Or, something?”

Andy shrugged. “We wouldn’t have to float high, a few feet from the bed. Besides, sometimes a little risk in sex can be fun.”

“Oh, right. Of course.” Kara started to play with her glasses and fiddling with her belt. Andy looked at her and wondered for a second. She was getting awfully flustered talking about someone she supposedly had a crush on. Was she just that innocent, or was it something else? Her journalistic instincts were itching to push the subject and find out. 

Suddenly a thought clicked in her head. “Oh. My. God.” She bounced on her toes as she whispered, “You’ve had sex with Supergirl!”

“Um?” Andy thought the blush from earlier was bright red, but this was a whole new level. Kara was a very large tomato, blush spreading down her neck and onto her chest and arms. “Technically?”

“Technically? You aren’t one of those people who think that sex is only the penis in a vagina thing right?” Andy couldn’t imagine so considering she was pan, but stranger things had happened to her. The “Hell is Real” signs in Ohio probably counted. “Or was it some custom made doll? I’ve seen those before.”

“People make _sex dolls_ of Supergirl.” Kara looked horrified, like she wanted to scrub that information from her brain.

Well… that’s not it. Andy nodded. “Yea, I’ve even seen a few. The sex shop on South Martel has them. They have adverts in the window. I even saw a few of some other famous people.” One in particular that she probably shouldn’t mention. Cat Grant would rain down hellfire if she knew.

“Um, yeah I just buy my toys online. I’ve never been there. A girl only needs a vibrator or two when she’s single.” 

“My ex took a load of our collection, so when I moved out here I needed some new ones. Asshole took my favorite.” It had even been her favorite shade of purple. Miranda probably would have called it plum. She shook herself. That wasn’t important.

“Oh! That’s awful! Um, from the flags on your cheeks, I take it you're bi? Was it a man or woman who took them?”

Andy practically snarled. “Man. And why the hell does he need my expensive vibrators? Honestly, at this point I wouldn’t ever want them back. I don’t want to know what he might have done with them, or if he used them on a different girl. Which luckily I’m clean and safe because what would happen if he passed something on?” Maybe she was still a little touchy from how close to home he’d hit on the street when she had taken that call from Miranda, but Kara didn’t need to know that.

“That’s terrible that he took your stuff,” Kara sympathized. 

He had taken most of the furniture too, but that was probably way too much information for a casual meet and greet with someone she only tangentially knew. Right, because talking about sex wasn’t too much information. Andy took a deep breath to avoid snorting at the thought, and tried to remember that today was a happy day. Nate and Mira--New York, weren’t to be thought about. So she shrugged it off. “Better off without him in my life, and now I’m here in National City. Who knows, maybe I’ll get a date with Supergirl.” 

“Oh, um.” Kara laughed nervously. “Yeah, maybe. But you may have to beat me in line?” She paused for a second before quickly adding, “Or better yet, you have to beat Cat.” 

Andy thought that her first comment sounded more like a question than a statement, and then the comment about Cat was to cover up the awkwardness, but she let it go for now. The parade would begin soon and she still hadn’t found a place to watch. “Hey, do you know a good place to watch the parade?” she asked Kara. She’d been in town for a while, Kara would probably know better than she would. Andy loved parades when she wasn’t actively walking in one. 

“Oh, yeah! I’m meeting my sister and aunt a couple streets over. It’s near the end of the parade so it’s less crowded. And in front of a really nice bar that we’re going to afterwards if you wanna come. It’s owned by this really nice lesbian couple, so most of the people there are also sapphically affiliated.” Kara grinned. “Maybe we can find you someone a little bit more attainable than Supergirl.”

“Well, I won’t say no to at least scoping out the scene. I haven’t been to any of the local gay bars yet, so it’ll be nice to check one out."

Kara smiled, looking like the sun. “Awesome! It’s not a far walk. If we hurry we’ll get there right in time.”

“Great! Then lead the way.” 

Kara led them through the crowds easily, cutting through the people like she had a sixth sense for where people were going to be. Andy definitely wasn’t complaining. She’d pushed through enough crowds in New York to relish not getting elbowed in the side. National City was more spread out than the City, but still, on a day like today people were packed in like sardines. They made good time, but Jesus, Kara’s legs were long and she walked faster than a New Yorker, so by the time they got to the bar she was a bit out of breath and definitely sweating.

“Damn. You could be an Olympic walker.” Andy laughed as she pulled a water bottle from her backpack, as well as her flag.

“Oh no, I’m not that fast.” Kara looked away and fiddled with her glasses. “I just got excited.”

“I lived in New York. The land of if you don’t move you get trampled, and you were still leagues ahead of me and you’re not even breathing hard. You would have been a godsend in New York with Miranda. No wonder Ms. Grant loves you.” And oh god, would she ever stop thinking about Miranda? It was like the more she tried not to think about her the more she randomly spoke about her. It was maddening.

Kara shrugged bashfully and looked around, trying to find her relatives. She didn’t say anything for a few long seconds before she finally jumped up on her toes and waved.

“There they are. Come on, I’ll introduce you.”

Kara grabbed Andy’s hand tightly and dragged her the last few feet through the crowd, giggling as she shouted out, “Hey! Alex!”

Two dark haired women turned towards the sound of Kara’s voice. Andy looked them over. The shorter one looked nothing like Kara, but the one with the white streak in her hair had a strong family resemblance. Neither of them looked old enough to be Kara’s aunt though, so it was hard to peg which was her sister.

Kara dropped Andy’s hand to give the two women a big hug before saying, “This is Andy, she’s a new employee for The Tribune. Andy, this is my sister Alex, and my Aunt Astra.” She pointed to the shorter woman and the woman with the white streak in turn.

Well. Shit. That didn’t help her confusion, at least on the age thing. “It’s nice to meet you.” She stuck out her hand and got a firm shake from each of them; Astra’s being a little bone crushing. Andy subtly shook her hand out afterwards.

Alex grinned. “So, Kara, is this a friend, or a friend?” She wiggled her eyebrows then promptly burst into laughter at her sister’s sputtering.

Astra looked reprovingly at Alex. “Now, Brave One, it isn’t nice to tease her in front of someone she might be courting.” But then her lips quirked into a small smile, unable to hold the serious look for too long.

Andy blinked at the strangle formal language, but smiled and jumped in. “We’ve just met really, I didn’t know her name until today. But not ruling anything out.” She grinned at Kara who just stared at her a little dumbfounded. “What? You’re gorgeous, and so far I’ve really enjoyed talking with you. It could happen.”

“Uh, um, I-I.” Kara cleared her throat.

“Oh come on, Kara, just tell her you think she’s pretty too.”

Kara groaned. “Alex, you’re literally the worst.”

“How can she literally be the worst. There are others who are worse than her,” Astra said, scowling.

Alex nodded. “Yeah, like Non.”

Kara just stared at Alex with an expression that clearly said “not helping.” Alex, for her part just grinned.

Astra scowled deeper. “I thought I asked you not to bring up Non?”

Alex turned to Astra, grin dropping off her face in an instant. She reached out and took Astra’s hand and squeezed gently. “Yeah, sorry. I forgot there for a sec.”

Astra looked angry for another few seconds before her face cleared. “Alright Brave One, but try not to forget. I would rather not remember that time in my life.”

Alex stood on her toes and kissed Astra gently. “You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. You aren’t that person anymore.”

Andy just stared. Kara’s sister and aunt had just kissed. Um, ok. She was definitely not comfortable with that. How exactly was she going to bow out now without looking like she was turning tail and running?

Kara must have seen Andy’s off-put expression because she blurted out, “I’m Alex’s foster sister! Alex and Astra aren’t related!”

“Oh,” Andy said, simply, and stopped thinking about running away and avoiding Cat Grant’s office like the plague, just so there were no awkward moments between her and Kara, because Kara for all intents and purposes was a nice girl even with a weird family. But less weird now that there wasn’t potential incest.

Alex’s eyes widened as she gasped. “Oh shit, you didn’t know that?”

Andy shook her head. “I only found out she had a sister ten minutes ago. Like I said, I really only learned Kara’s name today.”

Kara just shrugged, embarrassed. “Yeah, sorry I didn’t say something sooner. It’s just commonplace for me, you know?”

“No, it’s ok. I may be many things and be accepting of many things, but the idea of incest is very uncomfortable for me. But since it’s not, we’re all good here. Chalk it up to weird family dynamics. We all have them.” She shrugged. “ So, Astra is your biological Aunt, and Alex is your foster sister?”

“Yeah, my parents died when i was thirteen and Astra couldn’t take me in either because she was only twenty and still in school, so the Danvers took me in. I love them to death. Even this one when she steals the last pot sticker.” Kara nudged Alex in the side and Alex swatted Kara’s elbow away easily. 

“Hey! You ate like three fourths of them, sue me!”

Andy snorted. Oh yeah, siblings alright. She could imagine the same fight happening between her and her brother even now. 

“Little One, Alexandra, behave.”

Alex just glared at Astra and Kara. Kara looked like she’d seen a ghost for a fraction of a second. Andy wondered what that was about, but before she could really think about it Kara’s expression had shifted back to happy-go-lucky and she was rolling her eyes at Astra.

“Alexandra is the one who stole the potsticker!”

“Oh no you didn’t! Don’t you use that tone of voice or my full name,” Alex playfully threatened. “It’s bad enough I get it from mom and Astra!”

“Ha! Alexandra, clean your room! Alexandra, make sure Kara doesn’t jump down the stairs!” Kara laughed when Alex swatted at her. Her tone of voice changed as she continued, becoming a little breathier and deeper like she was imitating someone else during a rather...intimate moment. “Oh, fuck, Alexandra, please don-”

Astra slapped a hand over Kara’s mouth. She leaned in closer and whispered something into Kara’s ear that Andy didn’t catch before pulling back again. “There’s no need to be a parrot now is there?” Kara giggled behind the hand over her face just before Astra pulled away with a disgusted look. “Honestly, licking, I feel like we are back on Kry--at home and you are young again, not a grown woman.”

Andy looked at Astra. What had she been about to say before she then changed her mind? Was it their hometown? And if that was it, why didn’t she just say it? Was is too hard for her, some type of trauma cutting off the name? Something to do with the death of Kara’s parents maybe? Her curiosity was really starting to get the best of her. She might actually start asking questions soon, but that wasn’t her place.

“You still never learn the lesson of do not cover someone’s mouth if you don’t want to get licked.” Kara grinned, looking all the world like she was that five year old that Astra had probably been imagining. 

Astra looked at Andy. “Please forgive my niece for her terrible manners. She’s always been precocious. She takes after my departed sister that way.”

“Mom would say I take more after you in that way,” Kara said, a little more subdued, but still smiling softly.

Astra laughed and shook her head, looking up at the sky like she could see something past the blue of the sky. “Oh, of course she would, but you didn’t know her when we were younger, Little One. You are much like her in personality, just as you take after your father in looks. Besides, she got the position that I failed to, mostly due to her precocious behavior. She was quite the wild one in her day, but then she had you and motherhood calmed her. Somewhat anyway. She was still very passionate in the pursuit of justice.”

“Yeah, yeah, estranged sisters still loved each other despite being jerks.” Alex wrapped an arm around Astra’s waist. “At least she didn’t steal your entire container of potstickers.”

Astra threw up her hands. “You two are incorrigible.” 

Andy just laughed and shook her head. This was turning out to be entertaining if nothing else.

Suddenly Astra and Kara’s heads popped up and looked down the street.

“Parade is coming, we should move to the curb,” Kara said, already moving.

Andy listened but could hear nothing of the sort. There was just the crowd talking around them and the faint back beat of the music in the club. 

Alex looked at her. “Bat hearing, those two, I swear. Runs in the family. It was useful when Kara and I were sneaking around the house during the night. Not so useful when I had people over though.”

“Amazing.” Though honestly, Andy was putting it on her list of odd things. Because Andy didn’t even feel the bass vibrating the ground yet. How in the world could they hear something yet, good hearing or no.

“Come on, they’ll make sure we have a good view.” Alex grabbed hold of Andy’s hand and tugged her the few feet towards the curb where Kara and Astra were standing. They had cleared out a nice space for the four of them within twenty seconds with seemingly little effort. Andy wondered just how they did it. Then again, Miranda had done it with only her mere presence. 

She shook herself--not this again. Paris had been two months ago. She needed to stop thinking about it. She had moved to make things better and yet here she was, still thinking about her ex-boss. She was a broken record at this point and it was more than a little annoying.

The feel of bass under her feet, finally, pulled her from her thoughts though. She couldn’t hear the parade yet, but she could feel it, and the noise of horns and cheers were starting to get louder from down the street. She could feel the power underneath her, feel the celebration in the air, and she always wondered if this was what warriors felt like marching into a battle they were sure to win, high on adrenaline and the number of their brethren, knowing they could conquer the world. 

“It’s gonna be here soon!” Kara was bouncing on her toes, a huge grin plastered across her face. “This year, CatCo has a float and James is going to be on it and a few others from around the offices. I got an offer to join from several of them, but I decided I’d rather be in the crowds. But I got to help decorate the float, and it was amazing! So much glitter! There’s always a float that tosses shirts into the crowd, I got one last year. Oh and there’s a float that has a cannon that blasts boxes of condoms, mouthguards, and dental dams, totally grab some cause that stuff can get expensive! I usually donate the majority I grab to teen health groups, or Planned Parenthood.”

“She’s over excited like this every year,” Alex said, shaking her head, but grinning. “Also, she saves you from getting beamed in the head a lot and stuff, so.”

“Well, that’s handy. I’m not exactly sure anyone likes getting various prophylactics thrown at their head. Though I will take free t-shirts. I can always use those.” Andy wondered just what the Runway crew would think about taking a free t-shirt from a parade. She could imagine Nigel’s horrified face now and Emily’s sputtering and spewing out British phrases that Andy wasn’t even sure made sense. She smiled at that and resisted the urge to laugh. It would have been worth one day of catching hell just for those things.

Now Andy could actually hear the parade, though it was still pretty far off. At this point the only reason Andy could think of that Astra and Kara had heard the parade so early was that they were actually legitimately echo-locating and were blind otherwise. She looked at her coworkers carefully, observing as Kara was still going on and on about all the things that she was excited about. Alex was laughing and pushing at Kara’s shoulder while Astra rolled her eyes. Kara stuck her tongue out before she turned slightly to flash Andy a bright smile. She then looking down the street at the others crammed along the curb. Alright, if Andy was going to consider that something was odd about the girl in front of her who looked like the poster girl for ‘wholesome midwestern girl’ she might as well form a list of possibilities as to what was going on.

First thing was first is that there was nothing going on and she was just being overly analytical. It was possible. She was a journalist, it came with the territory. Kara had been to a few of the parades before, so maybe it was just knowing that the parade always started on time? So they were not really hearing the parade, just sorta phantom hearing it because it was punctual? Andy knew very well there were moments she’d imagined Miranda calling her name, and then just seconds later it really happened. Maybe it was something like that. It was probably the most likely option, if she was being honest with herself. But where was the harm in thinking of something a little less kosher? If nothing else she could laugh about it later.

She thought for a minute more. Well, Kara could be an alien. Something like Supergirl, but that would mean Astra would have to be too. Andy blinked. She blinked again and almost snorted. Right, Kara an alien. Ok, yeah maybe the heat was getting to her. The girl was way too just...too happy to be anything near what she thought of when she thought of aliens. Though Astra on the other hand, well. The jury was out because no one actually spoke in such a formal way anymore. But that wasn’t exactly a foundation for accusing someone of being an alien, maybe English just wasn’t her first language. 

But also… Kara had been antsy about the sex with Supergirl thing, and maybe that’s because Kara herself was an alien. Maybe sex between two aliens was different, which was why she said “technically.” Andy felt her eyes widen and her heart stutter. Or what if she had said technically for another reason. 

What if--what if Kara was Supergirl? Then technically could have meant masturbation. Oh fuck. What if she was the very woman who wore the suit? They had similar features from what anyone ever talked about in after-rescue interviews, though that only ever mentioned blonde hair and blue eyes, which was a good portion of the population. But it was enough of a niggling suspicion that Andy whipped out her phone and pulled up her browser.

She typed in Supergirl CatCo, because she knew that CatCo had the best pictures of Supergirl, and waited, toe tapping for the results to show. The parade was almost there now. Andy could hear it loud and clear now and feel it in her chest. She felt it like another heartbeat, and felt a little anxious because her heart was already beating hard. This was crazy. She had to be wrong. She shouldn’t be reacting like this, but then again, what if she was right?

She glanced up to watch Kara and her family as they cheered and clapped and screamed like everyone else; even Astra was less reserved than when Andy first was introduced. She looked back down as the first photo loaded up. It was a beautiful shot. Supergirl was running, cape flowing out behind her and a determined look on her face. Andy stared at it for a long second, memorizing everything like Nigel had taught her to do with fabrics, colors and textures. Models’ faces hadn’t really mattered when Andy was learning about Fashion, the clothes had, but in this one case it was the reverse. 

And then she looked up at Kara, whose hair was back in a ponytail with glasses perched on her nose, and god, it was a miracle that no one had seen it before but it was obviously her in that photo. The facial features matched up perfectly. Kara was Supergirl. There was absolutely no disputing it. How in the world had anyone with facial recognition software not come across this already. She looked down at the photo again and back up just to make sure, and her opinion didn’t change. Glasses and pulled back hair didn’t make a disguise, or at least a good one. Someone should probably tell Kara that soon.

Andy slid her phone back into her pocket. What in the world was she going to do with this information? She looked up and the parade was already streaming by her. She had missed the beginning. There were so many more things going on in her head right now than enjoying a parade. There would be others. But there was only one Supergirl. 

She felt her face turn bright red. Oh god. Oh shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. She’d fucking told Kara she was interested in having sex with Supergirl. She’d told Supergirl, the Supergirl, that she was curious what having sex while floating would feel like. She was never, ever going to live that one down. 

She took a deep breath. Ok, alright, everything would be fine. Her own personal embarrassments could take a backseat. The real problem here was that she was a journalist bound to tell the truth to the public when no one else would. And god above if this wouldn’t be the story of the goddamn century. Her career would be made on this. But she looked up at Kara, looked up at her laughing face as she turned to Alex and pointed at something garishly covered in glitter that Miranda would have hated. In comics all superheros had a secret identity so they could protect those around them, but Andy wondered if it wasn’t also to protect themselves too. Everyone deserved to be a regular person if they wanted to be.

And so here they were. She had the biggest story of her career. But in less than a minute she’d decided to shelf it for good. She took a deep breath and stepped closer to the curb, and took in the parade. She gasped as it began to rain small boxes from the sky. “Oh my god, you weren’t kidding! It is a cannon!”

Kara looked at her and laughed. “Yes it is!” She was reaching up and grabbing what was in reach while it fell, but also scooping down to collect a few from the ground. “Watch your head!” She shouted as the cannon shot more little boxes into the air.

“Oh boy.” Andy put her arms over her head to deflect any stray packages. There was a reason she played soccer instead of softball in high school. She couldn’t catch worth a shit. She wasn’t really all that worried about anything hitting her head with Kara around though.

Andy looked over at Kara who was now shoving boxes into a bag she had seemingly pulled out of nowhere, unless Alex or Astra had been holding it. It was close to bursting already, but Alex just handed her another small box and shook her head.

“You would think the way Kara acts with all this that it was the home run ball at a baseball game,” Alex said, rolling her eyes. 

Jumping at the gentle touch against her shoulder, Andy looked to see Astra giving her a smile. “Alex likes to think she is prickly and unkind, but she catches just as many boxes as my niece, and insists on helping Kara carry the bag, when it gets donated.” 

“Astra,” Alex whined. “You can’t just ruin my badass mystique like that.”

Astra laughed. “I think you do that well enough on your own, my love.” 

“I do not!” Alex huffed as she chucked one of the condom boxes at Astra’s head, only pouting more when Astra caught it easily.

Andy looked at Astra. If Astra was Kara’s biological aunt, then it would mean that she was an alien too. Kryptonian, super speed, super strength, super hearing the whole nine yards. Which, now that she was thinking more about it would obviously explain how they both heard the parade. Here was another person with superhuman abilities, but she was an unknown entity. Andy wondered about that, wondered why. She obviously wasn’t going around and rescuing people in the city. But how, with a niece like Kara, did you avoid such a thing? She had a feeling the other woman could be very, very persuasive. Then again, maybe she worked behind the scenes and Andy would never know it.

What must it be like, being one of three people left of an entire race, an entire planet? Except for that small group of aliens that had launched Myriad a few months before. There had been rumors that a few of them had been Kryptonians, but they had to be gone now, dead or in prison. Andy wondered if Astra had helped in that fight. Supergirl was powerful, but not enough to take on a whole army by herself. She had to have had help. Astra would make the most sense. If only she could ask without spooking them. Maybe she could find a way after getting to know them better.

She was pulled from her thoughts when something whooshed by her head and she gasped, startled. 

“Got it!” Kara exclaimed, clutching a box in her hand.

Alex laughed, obviously noting the look of shock on Andy’s face. “I told you she’d keep you from getting clocked on the head.”

“Yeah, good thing. That box looks pointy.”

Alex snatched another box from the air and shoved it in the bag she was holding. “I got hit in the eye once because someone got distracted by an ice cream stand going by.”

“But Alex! It was The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop!” Kara looked at her with puppy dog eyes. “Can you blame me?”

“Yes, because you’d already had two bowls of ice cream that day!”

“But The Salty Pimp is different! It’s so good. Chocolate covered, Alex, chocolate covered.” Her eyes glazed over, but she still had no problem catching the last few pelted boxes of sexual protectants. 

“Kara, you can get ice cream covered in chocolate at literally any ice cream place.”

“But--” 

“Yes, I know, they aren’t The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, but fucking still Kara. My eye. It’s important.” Alex crossed her arms. 

“Little One, Alex has a point.” Astra stepped in, leaning down to pick up a box from the ground. “You get distracted quite easily when it comes to food choices.”

Kara stared at her aunt petulantly. “I’m not the one who ordered thirty different pizzas in one day, now am I?”

Astra blushed. “It was the first time I had been introduced to pizza. There was too much variety and it was all so good. You can’t say much on that front, Little One.”

Andy raised an eyebrow. “You ordered thirty different pizzas in one day?”

Alex laughed. “Please, Kara will order more than that of just Hawaiian pizza. Thirty-five, sometimes forty, from five or six separate pizza parlors.” 

Andy just looked at all of them for a long second. Thirty pizzas. And they both looked like that. If there was anything that convinced her totally that Kara and Astra were aliens it would be that. God, the people at Runway would have stroked out by now just hearing that someone ordered a pizza, let alone thirty-five. Also, where in the world did Kara get the money to order that many pizzas. She knew what an assistant worked for and that many pizzas would be a good chunk of a paycheck.

“Um, where do you even put it all?” Andy asked.

Kara’s eyes grew wide as she stammered, finally realizing that maybe she’d said something odd. “I bring- see well- I bring, the uh, the rest into work! I’ll put it uh, into the different staff rooms, and uh share it. Or sometimes, well Alex might bring some into her lab where she works, so uh, yea. But I love Hawaiian and forget that I can’t eat so much so I-”

Alex and Astra exchanged looks as Kara continued to babble on. 

“Little One, your favorite float is going by,” Astra said.

Kara looked relieved at the out and turned to watch the CatCo float roll by at a sedate pace. The giant pink cat looked fearsome with it’s mouth wide open and it’s teeth showing, but there were rainbow flags all over the float and a banner reading “CatCo Pride” over the whole thing. Kara looked for a minute, glancing over the people on the float who were waving and throwing rainbow confetti and glitter off the float, before she spotted James with his camera, taking pictures from up by the top of the cat’s head.

She jumped up and down and started to wave. “James!” 

James pulled back from his camera for long enough to wave at Kara with a smile before raising his camera once more and taking a picture of their little group amongst the crowd. The float rolled on steadily and he waved one last time before it slipped out of sight.

“Honestly, you would think Cat would notice the implications of a giant pink pussy as the mascot,” Andy said, with a smirk.

Alex snorted and Astra looked a bit confused, but Kara didn’t even bat an eye.

“Oh, she does,” Kara said off-handedly before she cheered at the man who tore off his shirt on the next float that was passing by. She cheered even louder when the woman beside him tore off her shirt as well.

“Wait, what?” Andy was taken aback. But then she blinked and thought for a second. Cat was a smart woman and it was a little hard to miss the whole innuendo there. Still, though, why do it then?

“She has a whole long speech about it, but basically it boils down to femininity is not weak and why shouldn’t she have a mascot that embodies female power?” Kara looked back at Andy and shrugged. “She’s right.”

Andy thought for a moment and nodded. “She is.”

More of the parade passed and Andy had a great time exchanging observations with everyone in their little group. She was glad that she had accidentally run into Kara because she was definitely having more fun now than she would’ve on her own. And Kara, while it seemed she couldn’t keep a secret worth a shit, was a funny and warm person that Andy liked immensely even after such a short time.

The t-shirt cannon float came and Kara jumped up and down in excitement. “T-shirts! The shirts are here!” She looked at Andy. “This year they’re different pride flags. I read it on their website. Do you want me to try and grab you a bi flag one?”

“Sure, sounds good. I’ll grab a pan one if I see one.”

Kara smiled. “Great!”

Andy watched as several different people kept stuffing t-shirts from various buckets on the float into the PVC pipes of their cannons and firing them off as fast as they could. She looked down at the bins they were held in to see if certain people had different flags or if they were all jumbled up. It seemed, though, that there was no real order.

“Gay Pride, coming up!” A man from the float shouted into a megaphone just before a set of cannons went off, showering the crowd with shirts.

“Lesbian Pride, get ready!” A woman said into her own megaphone as a second set of cannons blasted into the sky.

“Oh my gosh that’s perfect! They’re awesome!” Kara squealed happily as she bounced around and was able to snatch up one of the Lesbian Pride shirts. “I got one for you Alex!”

Alex took the shirt from Kara and held it up. “Why does it always have to be pink.” She slipped it on though, over her other shirt without hesitation. 

More scrambling atop the float before the man called out, “For all of our bi people here today!”

The cannons fired and Andy watched as a shirt arked perfectly towards her. She smiled and held out her hands and it landed perfectly in her grasp. Well, if only high school gym softball had worked out as well for her.

“Nice catch!”

“Totally a fluke, but thanks.” She unfolded it and smiled at the bright, vibrant colors. It would be a good hang out shirt for the weekends.

“My good pans, here we go. Trans will be coming up in a moment!” The lady from the float announced. The cannons fired and the shirts were in the air.

“Grab for two of them!” Kara shouted, laughing as she lunged forward to grab one from the air, almost tripping over herself in the process. 

Andy looked around but saw nothing coming towards her and shrugged. She couldn’t catch what wasn’t there. Kara, it seemed, already had it under control anyway, as she reappeared with a second shirt clutched to her chest and a too bright smile on her face as she handed the second over to Astra. 

“Thank you, Little One.” She looked down at her shirt and tilted her head. “These remind me of the nurseries back at home.” She sighed wistfully.

“Yeah,” Kara said, her smile slipping just a bit. “They kind of do.”

“Though your mother hated the color pink. She chose greens and blues to decorate your nursery.”

Alex snorted. “Only Alura hated pink? Please. The only way anyone can get you to wear pink is if it’s the pride flag.”

“We were sisters, Alexandra, we did share some things, if not a great many. And a dislike for pink is common enough.” She gave Alex a significant look.

“Fine, fine, point taken.” Alex held up her hands palms out. “At least the pan flag has more than one color.”

“The lesbian flag has many colors, Alex.” 

“Technically, they’re shades,” Andy said, without thinking. 

Everyone turned towards her with questioning looks.

“What, I learned something from working at a fashion magazine for almost a year.” She shrugged even as her heart clenched, words about cerulean echoing through her mind. She didn’t think she’d ever forget that lecture. Andy didn’t think she’d forget a word Miranda had ever said. 

“You worked at a fashion magazine?” Alex asked, looking Andy up and down. “You don’t seem like the type.”

“I wasn’t, I just needed a job, any job, until I could get a foot in the door to be a journalist. And they said that working at Runway under Miranda could do that, and so I applied and here I am.” 

Here she was, clear across the country just to get away from the woman she had worked for, the woman she’d fallen in love with. As if it was so simple to just walk away from Miranda Priestly. As if she didn’t have her own sort of gravity. She only wished she could truly be free.

Kara gave her a strange look. “Miranda? Runway? Miranda Priestly?”

Great, even Kara knew who Miranda fucking Priestly was. Then again, since CatCo Magazine was part fashion magazine, too, it wasn’t that surprising. Assistants knew everything and everyone their bosses might come in contact with, and Miranda and Cat probably bumped elbows at some point. 

“Yeah, that would be her.” Andy’s voice was light, like she was just shrugging it off as no big deal.

“Wow, the rumor is she’s worse than Cat.”

“Considering you’ve survived working two years with Cat Grant and Andy here didn’t even survive one with this Miranda. That alone sounds like she’s worse,” Alex said.

Words pressed again the back of Andy’s throat, trying to escape, to defend Miranda, to say anything. But if she said something she wasn’t sure she could stop.

“Cat isn’t that bad, and I think Miranda isn’t that bad either. Rumors from disgruntled ex-employees shouldn’t be listened to.” Kara frowned while looking at her sister.

Andy just nodded along. “She was exacting, but once you had her figured out it wasn’t bad to work for her. She always kept you on your toes, but it wasn’t a bad thing. She’s not the Fashion Queen for being sweet and cuddly, especially being a woman in a corporate world of sexism, racism, ageism, and xenophobia, as well as all sorts of other nasty prejudices and judgments. The only thing really going for her is that she’s white, since many don’t like to say she’s attractive being in her fifties. She--”

Alex just looked at Kara before interrupting. “Man, she’s got it as bad as you do for Cat.”

And at that both Kara and Andy were spluttering out denials that were doing anything but disabusing the other two from believing the previous statement. 

“Maybe since they have so much in common having the hots for their bosses, they should just get together. What do you say, Astra?” Alex smirked at her partner.

“I believe that Kara should be with whoever she wants to be with.”

Alex pouted just a little bit. “Spoilsport.”

“Teasing, Alexandra, isn’t becoming.”

“Oh, I can think of some instances that you like teasing.”

Astra blushed a little but didn’t dignify Alex’s comment with a response.

After Kara finally started to get her babbling under control she turned to Andy. “I’m sorry, sometimes I think she was raised by wolves and only came back to civilization right before I came to lives with the Danvers.”

“Hey!” Alex said, but Astra held her back with ease. 

“I believe you deserve that one, darling.”

Alex just grumbled but stayed in Astra’s arms without struggle. 

“It’s ok, siblings are like that sometimes. My younger brother is an absolute idiot at times.” Andy shrugged and looked away. “And honestly, she’s not far off the mark anyway,” she said quietly, so it was lost in the din of the parade around them. It should almost be over by now.

Kara bit her lip and reached out for Andy. “Yeah, she isn’t for me either.”

Andy looked up into Kara’s eyes, blue, so like and unlike Miranda’s. Kara’s were the warm summer sky while Miranda’s were the haunting blue of glaciers. And in Kara’s she saw understanding to go along with the warmth. Something within her sighed in relief at finally having someone who knew what it was like to love someone you couldn’t have. She reached up and squeezed Kara’s hand for just a moment, a silent show of support, before they separated again.

The last few floats were going by and at the very end of the parade there were twelve people divided into two straight lines all in bright yellow outfits, being led by a person in a nun outfit. They were carrying signs that said “That’s all there is, there isn’t anymore.”

“Oh my god, are those drag queens in Madeline costumes?” Alex asked. “I don’t know if I love that or feel like my childhood just took a hit.”

Andy and Kara laughed at the expression on Alex’s face. Kara smiled and pointed behind them. “To the bar!”

“Because what could make this day of gay any better than a nice scotch?” Alex was already on the move, but was still giving the Madeline drag queens who were disappearing around the corner looks. 

“Alex, I hope you plan to pay for your own drinks.” Astra trailed just behind her partner, a look of partial concern on her face. “And also, I thought we were ordering that new drink you talked about, something about shouting and coming? Yelling copulation? Loud fucking? Screaming orgasm?”

Kara looked at Andy and rolled her eyes. “Alex barely needs an excuse to day drink. And she’s always able to get others to buy them for her.” Her eyelids twitched with every new drink suggestion that Astra tried. “Also, there are some things you really don’t ever want to hear your aunt talk about.”

“Screaming Orgasm Special. It’s the SOS, baby,” Alex said. She stuck her tongue out at Kara.

“Do refrain from calling me baby, Alexandra. You know I don’t like it. And isn’t an SOS meant to be a call for help. If you’re orgasming I don’t think you need much help.”

Kara just looked at Andy and whispered, “Dear god please kill me.” To which Andy snorted and shook her head. 

“Please? Pretty please? This will only get worse once Alex gets a few drinks in her. So many innuendos Andy, you don’t understand.”

“Once you get a few drinks in I don’t think you’ll care as much either.” Though Andy wasn’t sure that alcohol would affect Kara since she was an alien. She’d have to see as the day went on.

Kara shook her head. “I, uh, don’t drink really, I don’t, uh, like the feeling of um, being drunk. Or honestly, the taste. I don’t understand why people willingly consume it.”

“Have you ever tried peach schnapps?” Andy asked. “It’s like liquid peach rings.” She hummed and sighed. Peach schnapps sounded great. Maybe she’d get a fuzzy navel first off.

Kara shook her head. “I haven’t tried that one. But, um, I’ll probably just stick to my regular ginger ale.”

Andy shrugged. “Ok, I’ll probably get something with schnapps in it while we’re here. You are welcome to have a taste if you decide you want to.”

“Thanks.”

They paid their cover fee after pushing through the mass of bodies around the bar trying to get in as well. The bar wasn’t super crowded when they emerged into the dim interior, but it was filling up fast. The music was already loud and reverberating through Andy’s chest. The area around the bar was full of people lining up to get the party started with their first drinks and the bartenders were scrambling around. Alex was already at the bar waving for the bartender with a smile so Andy just followed behind her.

“Hey I’m glad I found you! Kara! Alex! Astra!” 

Andy turned around to see a vaguely familiar woman walking towards her. She thought she’d seen her around Catco, but not with enough regularity to actually be an employee of Catco herself. Considering she was coming up to their little group she was probably friends with Kara and came there to see her for lunch or something like that.

“Lucy!” Kara exclaimed, intercepting her friend and hugging her. “Glad you made it!”

“I missed the parade though.” She frowned. “But there was an issue at work.”

Both Alex and Kara looked at Lucy with worried expressions. Lucy waved them off though.

“It was just paperwork, nothing scary.”

Alex nodded and went back to staring down the bartender with flirty eyes while Astra shook her head and Kara brought Lucy forward into their little circle. “Lucy, meet Andy. She started at CatCo recently. She’s joining us for the party!” 

Lucy looked Andy up and down. “Journalist?” she asked. “Maybe in the fashion department?”

Andy felt her nails dig into her palm. She really wasn’t going to get away from Runway today. “First part was right, not about the fashion though. I’m more into the political beat.” She was in one of her few designer t-shirts, but for Lucy to spot that in a bar, she had to be very familiar with designer labels, near Miranda-lever familiar.

Alex looked over her shoulder. “She worked with the great Miranda Priestly though!”

Lucy’s eyes lit up. “Oh, Runway is great. I’ve read it since I was a teenager.”

Well that would explain the designer spotting then. Andy just nodded. “Yeah, it’s...interesting. Fashion wasn’t really my thing and still isn’t, but I did learn a lot there. You should have seen the clothes I thought were acceptable for business wear before. I luckily had the great Nigel Kipling to help.” God she looked back on that one plaid skirt and winced internally. What in the world had possessed her.

“Wow! What a powerhouse! And he helped you shape up your wardrobe? I’m jealous.” Lucy looked impressed.

Andy looked down at the floor a bit bashfully. “Yeah, well, you sort of have to have the big guns when you’re trying to impress Miranda Priestly.”

“Yes!” Alex exclaimed under her breath. “What are your drink orders, quick.”

Andy looked back at Alex and saw the bartender heading straight towards the other woman. 

“Two screaming orgasms, a ginger ale, and?”

“Fuzzy navel,” Andy said.

“Tequila sunrise. Might as well get the party started right off.” Lucy grinned.

“Director or not, I’m not dragging your ass home,” Alex said right before the bartender walked up to her and she set about ordering.

Astra gave Alex a funny look. “Why would you drag Lucy home when Agent Vasquez could come get her?”

“She’s on duty,” both Alex and Lucy said at the same time.

“Ah, I see then.” She looked at Alex. “Then you will not leave your friend drunk in downtown National City. It will be no problem to take her home. If you won’t do it, I can easily do so.”

Alex huffed. “I wasn’t seriously going to leave her anywhere, Astra. You know me better than that. It’s just tequila and Lucy--”

Lucy cut her off. “I get a little crazy. In fact, someone please stop me if I try to do body shots off some rando. But hey, it’s nice to be able to let loose every once in awhile and pride’s a good time to do that.”

“Tequila made me strip and run across Northwestern’s campus in my underwear in November,” Andy added. “So I relate to the crazy.” In fact, she’d avoided it after than incident because she never wanted to explain to an ER doctor again why she had frostbite on her ass. Once was more than enough. 

Alex handed Andy her drink. “I have a tequila story, but you don’t unlock that story until about my third drink at least.”

Andy just looked at Kara who snorted and grabbed her ginger ale from the bar behind Alex. “She drunk dialed her professor for genetics that she had the hots for in junior year two weeks before the semester ended and told her that she totally wanted to bend her over the podium in the front of the lecture hall and do all sorts of interesting things to her. Then of course had to face her in class for two more weeks. I could feel her embarrassment clear back in Midvale.”

“Kara,” Alex whined as she slammed back her drink, “there’s a reason I wanted to be drunk for that story. I don’t want to remember the re-lived humiliation.”

“Alex, I’m surprised you weren’t put on probation for sexual harassment. You told her you wanted to fuck her ass in front of the class. That is not normal, it was illegal for you to be drinking and she let it go.”

Astra just raised an eyebrow at Alex.

“I was nineteen and stupid, ok?” Alex said to her defense. 

Astra leaned in and whispered in Alex’s ear and Andy had the impression that it was something dirty from the way that Alex’s eyes glazed over for just a second. Kara looked on with horror and grabbed Andy and Lucy’s arms. 

“Come dance with me?”

Andy didn’t even get a chance to agree before they were on the filling dancefloor, her drink still in hand. She smiled and felt the beat, her time in choir doing her a favor as she started to move with the music easily. She couldn’t dance well, but in a club it really didn’t matter. Kara smiled and started to dance beside her, looking relieved at being away from her aunt and sister and their flirting. Lucy downed half her drink with a grin and shook her hips with a laugh. 

A few songs passed and Andy was having the time of her life, really. Kara was fun to dance with, always managing to stay on beat and never bumping Andy with elbows or stepping on feet. Alex and Astra joined them after a while, grinding on each other rather shamelessly. Or well, Alex was grinding on Astra and Astra just went along with it like it was all a rather strange custom she didn’t understand but enjoyed well enough. Kara looked to the heavens for a long moment before mouthing “Family, why,” and continuing to dance.

Lucy had gone back to the bar and ordered fresh drinks, bringing them with her out to the floor. Andy took hers and smiled her thanks because it wasn’t like any words were going to be heard on the dancefloor with the music as loud as it was. Halfway through that drink she started to feel the effects of the alcohol and everything got warmer and a little fuzzier around the edges. She turned and smiled wide at Kara who smiled back like she was trying to be the sun.

It took only two more rounds of drinks before Lucy was trying to do body shots off of someone. Kara pulled her back easily but Lucy’s face shifted into such a pitiful look that Kara let her go again. Astra came to the rescue then and pulled Lucy back to the dancefloor by the ear.

“Honestly, Little One, you can’t be so soft,” she said before going after her.

Andy just laughed as Kara looked at her with an embarrassed look that sort of resembled a kicked puppy. She was drunk now, well and truly. She should probably grab some water soon so she wouldn’t have a hangover from hell the next day, but for now she pulled Kara back to the dance floor once more with even more drinks.

For all Andy could see neither of the Kryptonians were drunk, but then again, she didn’t think they were actively drinking either. She supposed there was no real point in drinking if you couldn’t get drunk. It wasn’t like much alcohol actually tasted good. Except peach schnapps. But it was an outlier and shouldn’t be counted. 

More people were on the dance floor than ever and Andy wondered if the club had hit their fire code limit yet. As it was after she handed out the drinks and started to dance again, she was almost all the way pressed up against Kara. She didn’t really mind. Kara was pretty and smelled good and she was nice. Andy really liked her. She wondered if it wouldn’t be a bad thing to move on from Miranda with someone like Kara. She understood about crushes on bosses. They wouldn’t be number one in each other’s life, but if they knew that going in, it wouldn’t be bad would it?

The music started to fade out and a spotlight shined on a stage that Andy hadn’t seen on first inspection of the club. A woman with a rainbow colored pixie cut and hipster glasses stood at the front of the stage with a mic.

“Alright everyone, it’s the part of the day I know you were all waiting for, it’s time to pick the hottest couple at the club!”

A cheer went up from the crowd. Andy looked over at Kara with a questioning look. This was totally the first she was hearing about any sort of contest.

“It’s a huge part of this club’s popularity,” Kara said. “They have a contest every month and a special one on Pride.”

“For our new friends today, we will be having our biggest Hottest Couple event of the year! Pride Month baby!” The crowd went wild, a mass of jumping up and down and various levels of screams from even the older members there. “But first, introductions!”

The spotlight swung over and landed on Alex and Astra. Alex stood up taller and smirked, waving at everyone like she was some sort of royalty. Astra just looked out over the crowd with a dangerous look on her face that Andy had to admit was a little hot. Astra then smirked, and Andy gulped. Ok, more than a little hot, that was smoking.

“Our reigning Queens! Our longest running Hottest Couple, they have taken the torch every month since the last Pride Parade! That’s twelve months of Hot! So for this special Pride Month event, we are going to find another potential Hottest Couple, and they will have to face off with our reigning Queens! Here we go, everyone, look hot!”

The spotlight started to scan over the crowd slowly, revealing women paired up with their partners doing various things to try and catch the eye of the announcer, some were kissing, some were posing, some were just standing around looking around and waiting. Andy looked over at Kara and giggled. It was all a little bit ridiculous, but it was all in good fun.

As the spotlight swung back around towards them the people around them started to move around her. Andy moved closer to Kara, but apparently not close enough because the couple right beside her, who was trying to do something that looked like a tango in the middle of the crowded dance floor knocked into her and sent her flying.

She had a moment to hope she wasn’t going to hit the ground hard before arms were around her, catching her easily. Andy looked up to see Kara grinning down at her bashfully. In the shock of things Andy took a second to realize where her hand had fallen, right smack on top of Kara’s boob. She blushed and tried to step back but then she realized one of Kara’s hands had ended up on her ass. 

And of course that was the moment the spotlight landed on them, tangled up in each other, blushing, and totally unprepared. Andy expected the spotlight to move right past them, but of course it didn’t. It was just her lucky day apparently.

“Well, what do you think, ladies, have we got a good candidate?” The announcer asked.

A loud cheer went up from the crowd.

“Alright then, why don’t the two dueling couples come up on stage then for the face off?”

Alex pulled Astra onto the stage, their arms linked, and a shit eating grin on her face. Andy wanted to disappear and by the looks of it so did Kara, but then Alex’s voice rang out, “What? Are our competitors too chicken to face off against the Hottest Couple in National City?”

Kara’s eyes narrowed and she glared at Alex. Andy had the distinct feeling that Alex was going to get what was coming to her later. Kara looked down at her with a clear question in her eyes, ‘Do you want to do this?’ Andy thought for a moment before nodding. A little competition would be fun, and she hated to lose anyway. Then she gasped when Kara scooped her up and pressed their lips together briefly before carrying Andy to the stage.

Kara smirked as she placed Andy back on her feet. “We’re ready.”

“Wow talk about an entrance!” The announcer fanned herself and wiped at her brow in a dramatic manner. “Are we ready to hear about the face off?” She called out.

A range of cries and shouts were given in reply, some with foul language, some unintelligible, and others just random screaming. 

“Ok then, here are the rules. Each lovely couple gets one kiss to impress the crowd with their hotness. Nothing’s off the table as far as the kiss goes, just try to stay within public decency laws if you would. People in uniform are hot, but not when they’re arresting you, let me tell you. Afterwards, you guys will scream for your favorite, and whoever gets the largest response wins the title. How about that?”

More screams were heard from the crowd. 

“Then let’s get this show on the road. Since they’re our reigning champs let’s let the ladies Alex and Astra go first shall we?” She turned to the couple. “Take it away, you hotties.”

Alex looked at Astra for all of millisecond before she launched herself into the other woman. Astra didn’t even take a step back, she just caught Alex with ease. One of Alex’s hands buried itself in Astra’s hair and yanked her head back hard, baring Astra’s neck to Alex who dove in. She planted biting, wet kisses along the entire length. The crowd cheered them on as Alex made her way towards Astra’s mouth. 

Alex finally reached her destination and let go of Astra’s hair. Astra bent forward, lower and lower, dipping Alex towards the ground, but still having no problem holding the other woman up. Their kiss was heated and Andy could hear Alex muffle a moan against Astra’s mouth as Astra moved to stand straight again.

The kiss finally broke amidst a chorus of wolf whistles. In a feat of agility that Andy knew she’d never have, Alex flipped herself around Astra’s body so she was sitting on Astra’s back in piggyback position. She grinned over at Kara and Andy as the audience went wild.

“Beat that,” she shouted in a smug tone.

Andy looked at Kara, who was looking a bit traumatized, but also determined. Kara glanced over at Andy, and Andy knew that whatever was about to happen was going to be one hell of a trip. Andy just nodded again, and then Kara’s hands were on her face, pulling her in with a jerk that had Andy pressed up against Kara all over again. Except this time their lips met and Andy visibly shuddered. Oh, Kara was so warm, almost like she had a fever and she tasted like the tang of ginger ale and the sweetness of ice cream. It should have tasted innocent, but with the way Kara’s tongue slipped inside her mouth it was anything but.

Andy, not to be outdone turned them slightly so the crowd could see what she was doing and grabbed Kara’s ass hard, squeezing it between her hands and marvelling at just how firm it was. Kara pulled back and moaned loud enough that the crowd heard it and went wild. Andy just smirked at Kara whose eyes had glazed over a little.

But then Kara’s focus was back on her and she moved forward to Andy’s neck and bit down hard enough to definitely leave a mark and this time it was Andy who was groaning and letting her head fall back so Kara could have her way with her. Kara moved on from the first mark a little way up her neck and bit again and then again. Andy thanked every god she knew that Serena had taught her how to cover up hickies with little effort before she’d left Runway because otherwise it would have been an embarrassing week at work.

One final nip to the underside of Andy’s jaw had her knees giving out and all her weight leaning on Kara. Kara held her up with ease and pulled back to look at Alex with a raised eyebrow and that innocent smile that had no place on her face after what she’d just done. Even after a few seconds Andy wasn’t quite sure that she could stand on her own power, but she was really just content to stay where she was for now.

The cheers of the crowd finally died down and the announcer stepped forward again. “Well, hell, ladies, I don’t know how we’re ever going to top a show like that.” Agreements came from the crowd. “But that’s a problem for another time. Now it’s time to vote! Those of you who want our reigning champs to continue their benevolent and fiery reign, give us a yell.” She gestured over to Alex and Astra. 

The roar of the crowd was deafening and Andy saw both Kara and Astra wince slightly. She wanted to cover her own ears, she couldn’t imagine how super-hearing would be affected by the thunderous cheers. Andy wondered, still leaning against Kara, if the Kryptonians were able to regulate their senses somehow. It would only make sense considering sensory overload was a bitch. She bit the inside of her lip as her hand itched for a pen and a pad. She can’t turn off the journalist even after a makeout session that made her knees weak, she’d accepted that long ago. 

The roar died down finally and the announcer turned to them. “And for these lovely challengers?”

Again the crowded cheered, but it was marginally quieter, even though her ears were ringing from the noise. Andy frowned, but shrugged slightly. Well, they had damn well done their best. She stepped back carefully, testing out her knees. They were still a bit wobbly, but she could hold her own weight. Jesus, how Kara had found that spot that made her go boneless every single time on the first try was beyond her. Maybe there really could be something to this after all.

Or maybe that was just the alcohol talking. Except she looked at Kara, and got a rosey cheeked glance back, and a big smile…and Kara was most definitely not drunk. And drunk words were sober thoughts. What about drunk thoughts? What were those?

Yeah, no she should sober up and think about this or else running across campus naked was going to look like a cute mistake in comparison. She didn’t need to fuck with her heart even more than she had.

“Well, I think by a slim margin we have our winner,” the announcer shouted, turning to Alex and Astra. Another woman in jeans and suspenders and not much else came forward with two sashes that read “Hottest Couple Pride 2016” and draped them over Alex and Astra’s shoulders. There was more cheering and screaming and someone even threw their bra on stage to which Astra looked a little confused and Alex laughed.

“Well that’s it for this year’s Pride contest, see you next month for our more tame version.” The announcer smirked when the crowd booed, and lifted the microphone back to her mouth. “Unless we can convince the winning couple for one more show!”

Alex and Astra looked at each other for a second before shrugging. Alex wrapped her arms around Astra’s back and nudged the back of Astra’s knees until Astra got the message and leaned back and Alex dipped her like they were in some old school Hollywood movie. She kissed Astra, long and slow for a minute, then two, before standing up again. The crowd was cheering again, Andy thought she saw some women fanning themselves at the front of the stage.

“My, my,” the announcer said, “don’t you two know how to put on a show. And ladies, I think we all desperately want to know what gym you go to because that upper body strength, mmm-mmm.”

Alex flexed for the crowd, a grin on her face. “Well, government work has to have some perk, right?”

“I think if you’re working there that would be all the perks we need,” the announcer said with a laugh.

Astra looked a little bit murderous and the announcer stepped back. “But just for looking since you already have a nice hot lady of your own.” At that Astra backed off with a small smile on her face, and pressed a quick kiss to Alex’s temple.

“And that really is the end of the competition. Go back to drinking and dancing and being gay.” 

The music started up again and people swarmed the bar. The group of them climbed back down onto the dancefloor. 

“Anyone see where Lucy disappeared to?” Alex asked. There was slight slur to her shouted words.

Everyone else looked at each other and shrugged. 

“That woman.” Alex stalked off through the crowd.

“Alexandra, I can find her without actually stalking off to Rao knows where!” Astra shouted, going after Alex.

Andy turned to Kara. “To the bar then?”

Kara smiled and blushed yet again before nodding. “Sounds great! Maybe you should start slowing on the alcohol though. Don’t you have an article due for the online edition tonight?”

Andy’s eyes widened. She’d totally forgotten about that. She’d signed up earlier in the week since she was going anyway but her article about a new bill trying to regulate firearms sales that was slated to fail even after yet another mass shooting had taken up so much of her focus that she’d just shoved it to the back of her mind.

“Shit, I forgot about that. Thank you for reminding me.” She looked at the bar, then looked at her phone for the time. It was only four, one more drink for the road wasn’t going to hurt her. She had until midnight to get it done and god knew how many articles she’d written drunk in college. Besides it was about Pride anyway, she could write about it in her sleep.

“No problem. I practically have the list of articles memorized every week so.” Kara shrugged and tucked a piece of loose hair behind her ear.

“Well, one for the road then and I’ll go back to CatCo and get started. Good thing I’ve been to so many Prides. This article will be a piece of cake.”

“Good, good.”

Kara followed Andy to the bar and Andy swayed to the music playing without a care in the world. Well, one care because she didn’t want another fuzzy navel. What to drink instead?

“Kara, what should I get to drink for my last one?” Andy asked. She was starting to feel a little fuzzier now. Maybe having one last drink wasn’t such a good idea, but she was already here so why not.

“Uh, I don’t know. I don’t know much about alcohol since I’m not a big fan. Uh, a cosmo?”

Andy shook her head. “Nah.” She perked up. “Oh! I know, a sex on the beach. That’ll be great. And still with peach schnapps.” 

Kara blushed like she hadn’t just left three hickies on Andy’s neck in front of a crowd, and Andy giggled to herself about how cute Kara looked with rosy cheeks. “Uh yeah, whatever you want, I guess.” Kara shrugged.

Andy thought it was a little bit cute that Kara could be so flustered one second and then a confident and sexy woman the next. She wondered what Kara would be like in a relationship, whether it would be the same sweet and flustered and also confident and sexy or would the confidence reign. She sort of liked the idea where Kara remained as she was, since there was no real mutual exclusion between innocence and sexiness.

The bartender came and interrupted her thought process and the next minute she had her last drink in her hand. She handed Kara the ginger ale she’d ordered for her and sipped on her drink. She hummed in appreciation. This place really knew how to make a mixed drink, not too much or too little alcohol.

Alex found them there by the bar, supporting an obviously wasted Lucy. “I’m taking this one home. She was doing body shots off of literally anyone who volunteered while we were up on stage.” 

“But Alex,” Lucy said, hanging off the other woman. “I’m allowed to do body shots, Susan knows.”

“You said to stop you if you tried to do body shots earlier.” Alex crossed her arms in front of her, trying to dislodge Lucy’s arms. 

“Oh, right, I guess I did. Huh. Now why would I do that?” 

“I don’t know, you’re the one who knows the limits you and Vasquez set, not me.” Alex glared down at the other woman.

“Alex,” Lucy whined. “Are you mad at me? I don’t want you to be mad at me. Being drunk is supposed to be fun.”

Alex looked back at Andy and Kara. “Yeah, so this is why we’re going home to put her to bed.”

Astra appeared behind Alex. “We weren’t planning on staying long after the contest anyway, Alexandra.”

“True enough.” Alex shook her head and turned to kiss Astra on the cheek, disregarding that Lucy was still hanging off her arm and sort of sandwiched between them.

“Come along, Lucy, we’ll see you home then,” Astra said, stepping back. “We will see you later, Little one. It was nice meeting you Andy.”

“It was nice meeting you too and fun competing against you. I think it was the acrobatic piggyback that stole the win. Maybe if Kara left another hickey we would have won.” Andy smiled.

Astra grinned. “You fought well, but we are champions for a reason, Bold One.” 

“Wow, I even earned a nickname, seems like a good sign.”

Kara replied with a considering expression, “Yeah, it is. I’ll see you later Aunt Astra. Bye Alex.”

“Bye losers!” Alex stuck her tongue out before hauling Lucy with her towards the door. 

Astra rolled her eyes before following her girlfriend. 

Kara turned to Andy. “Sorry, she’s an idiot.”

“I heard that!” Alex called.

“No, Astra heard that and told you and I know it,” Kara replied.

“Same thing!” 

Kara just rubbed her face. “Sisters.”

“Family in general.”

“Yeah.”

Andy downed the rest of her drink in one go. “Might as well join the leaving trend since I have that article to write.” She pushed off the bar and almost toppled right onto her face. Ok, so the last drink had definitely be a mistake. 

“Whoa, hey, are you ok Andy?” Kara asked as she reached out to steady Andy.

“Yeah, fine, apparently some of the alcohol just had a delayed effectiveness and now I’m a little drunker than I thought.” 

“Oh, that’s not good. I should escort you to CatCo to make sure you get there safely. You can sober up there while you write.”

Andy nodded. “Yeah, that would be great.” Honestly it would be even better if one of Kara’s superpowers was curing hangovers, but she would take an escort for the short-ish walk to CatCo.

“Um, if you need help editing it I can do that too. I help out Miss Grant a lot when there’s a bunch of editing to get through.”

“Yeah, today that would probably be a good idea. I think I’m taking Hemingway’s “write drunk, edit sober” a little too seriously.” She rubbed her hands over her face. When that last bit of alcohol finally hit she was going to be fit to be tied.

Kara giggled. “Maybe a little bit, but at least the drinking fits in the spirit of Pride.”

“I guess you’re right.” Andy stood up a little straighter and started to walk again. Now that she was aware of just how drunk she actually was she could compensate, at least a little bit. Kara was still beside her, supporting her marginally.

When they emerged out into the sunshine of National City again, Andy squinted. Oh, she hadn’t drank any water at all in the club and her hangover later was going to be killer with this bright sun everywhere. At least in the City sometimes you would get a break and there would be clouds. She rubbed her forehead and kept walking. Well, she at least had Motrin in her desk.

Except no she didn’t she hadn’t gotten that far to setting up her little survival kit of supplies she always kept nearby. Oh boy, it was going to be rough going then. But then again, Kara might have some.

“Hey, do you have any Motrin?”

“I have aspirin,” Kara said. “Does that work?”

Andy nodded. “Yup, same family. Tylenol doesn’t work for me, but NSAIDs do.” 

“Good, it’s in my desk at work. I have a few other things for hangovers too. They come in handy.”

“Miss. Grant does like her scotch,” Andy said.

“Yeah, and wine, and whiskey, and any expensive alcohol.” Kara frowned. “Sometimes I really worry about her.”

Andy nodded. “I understand.” She remembered Paris. She remembered finding Miranda stripped bare of all her armor, a woman desperate for her children to love her and whose romantic commitments kept falling apart because she couldn’t stop working and chasing perfection. She had worried too. She still worried. Still wondered if Miranda had changed anything now that Stephen was divorcing her.

“My mother used to tell me stories about how wonderful love was and how it would all work out as it was supposed to and how whoever it was that I ended up with would treat me as if I was the sun and how I would love them back just as much, but now…” She trailed off before drawing in a deep breath. “Well, it’s a bit hard to believe. It’s been a bit hard to believe for a while now. Since, well, since I came to live with the Danvers, honestly. It was a fairytale and life just isn’t. It never was.” 

Kara looked so sad and lost in that moment. Andy wrapped her arm around Kara’s shoulders and squeezed.

“Just because life isn’t a fairytale doesn’t mean that there can’t be any magic, that there can’t be any good. We have a long time until the end comes and who knows if it’ll read and they lived happily ever after or not. For the most part, your mother was right, things do work out, even if they aren’t as we pictured them.”

Kara glanced over at Andy for a long moment as they kept walking. “Maybe they do.”

Andy smiled, swaying a little into Kara. “Yeah, maybe.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miranda comes to National City. She and Cat have some baggage to deal with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter two!  
> It's a little later than we wanted, but it's here and ready to read!  
> Hope you enjoy!  
> We don't have a beta but we edit as best as we can! :)  
> Lots of love,  
> CBC

Miranda internally groaned before stepping out of the vehicle in front of the CatCo building. She was not happy to be here, but also knew not to be petty if it wasn’t worth it. The fact of the matter was she was already going to be in National City for a few showings from designers that had decided that warmer climes were better for their creativity and turning down an interview for an article about powerful businesswomen, when she ruled the publishing industry in New York and in all of fashion, would be a bad move for publicity. Especially when she was already in hot water with the press over the divorce. 

She scowled at the thought of the divorce. At one point she had been in love with Stephen, in her own way, and he had loved her back. But then he started cheating on her, and she started treating him like the charlatan he was, and now he was trying to drag her through the mud, as if she was in the wrong. At least the disgusting pig had made a drunken mistake and gone out with one of his mistresses and been caught by the press. Her attorney said that it was going to cut the court proceedings a lot shorter, even though Stephen was still taking her to court to try and annul the prenup. He should have been more careful with his indiscretions, the bastard.

Heels clacking on the pavement, she swept into the lobby and glanced around with an efficient eye. She knew that Cat would have a way to access the building that only the Queen of all Media herself was supposedly allowed to use, and Miranda would find it, and then proceed to use it. They both had shared the dislike of publicly shared spaces. She didn’t think that had changed over the years, and since Cat owned the building and had it remodeled from top to bottom when she bought it, Miranda had no doubt there would be a private elevator somewhere.

Ah. There it was. She walked towards the elevator doors set apart from the main bank, secured with key card access. She hadn’t let something frivolous like a lock stop her yet and wasn’t about to now. Miranda strode past the security desk with purpose and didn’t look back.

“Ma’am. Ma’am! Ma’am you can’t go in without a pass,” someone who sounded almost pre-pubescent to Miranda’s ears said behind her.

Miranda rounded on the boy who barely filled out his rent-a-cop uniform. “Do you have any desire to never have a job outside of fast food again?”

The boy blinked. “Um, no?”

She smiled the fake, shark-like smile that a great many people had seen right before their careers went down the drain. “Then I would suggest you let me onto this elevator and never call me ma’am again. Do we have an understanding?”

“Well, um, Miss?” Miranda lowered her sunglasses and glared harder and the boy started to tremble visibly. “I can’t let you up there without a pass and for that you need an appointment. And that elevator is Miss Grant’s personal elevator and no one can use it except her.”

Miranda let out a dark sounding chuckle. It was brief, and she could see several people around her stop dead in their tracks. “Oh. I see. You obviously care so little about your job that you didn’t pay attention to who does have appointments, and how important some of these appointments are.” She cocked her head to the side and looked at his name badge. “Devon, is it. Would you like to know something? People who really want to move up in the world don’t just accept a list of names and wait for them to check in at the security desk. They look up photos of the people on the list so they are ready when they arrive, especially if some of these people are rather famous. Now have you done that?”

The boy shook his head weakly.

“Clearly. Your initiative is equivalent to that of a lazy fast food worker. So unless you plan on letting me into this elevator right this second so I may keep my appointment with Miss Grant herself, you will be working at the corner McDonald’s with a snap of my fingers. Do you grasp this rather simple ultimatum or must I take more time out of my day to use simpler words?”

The guard scanned his badge over the key card lock on the elevator and handed over a visitor’s pass without another word.

“Wonderful, I’m glad you can rub two brain cells together.” She stepped on the elevator and pressed the right floor. “That’s all.”

The doors closed and the elevator rose swiftly. Only once she was safely ensconced in the privacy of the small car did she let out a sigh. Terrorizing the staff only marginally soothed her frustrations, and it wasn’t nearly as pleasant now because it wasn’t her own staff. At least she paid her own staff to put up with her rather capricious moods. Honestly, whoever was the manager of security was the real problem, not some twenty-year-old baby. She’d be sure to have a thorough discussion with Cat about mentoring young workers better.

The elevator dinged and let Miranda out on the fiftieth floor. She strode into a mostly empty office, only the bare skeleton of a weekend staff moving around at a sedate pace. The Sunday edition had already gone out to print and Monday morning must be mostly finalized by this time. There was nothing really to scramble over then. Still this would be unacceptable in her building, a little pep in their step wouldn’t hurt them.

She walked through to where she knew Cat’s office was. It was hard to miss, all impressive glass walls so she could look out on the rabble. For all their differences, they had remarkably similar tastes in office decor. She almost felt as if she were at Runway, but Cat’s office was more earth tones while hers tended towards greys and neutrals; Cat also had her bizarre love for that fashion disaster of a pink panther statue. The amount of crass jokes that must be made about that train wreck was probably more than Miranda could count in a lifetime. Oh she was sure that Cat had a reason for it, some lofty ideal speech about it, but really, it was about power over her own domain more than anything. It irked Miranda that Cat had something so gaudy and displayed it so brazenly. It irked her even more to know the panther had become a trademark, almost as important as the CatCo logo itself.

Miranda walked past the empty, but cheerily decorated, desk which had to belong to Cat’s assistant, since it was positioned right outside her office door. The second desk situated across from the first, looked rather blank with no personal touches, and Miranda smirked at the thought that Cat struggled with assistants as well. She looked up and saw Cat sitting there, and Miranda’s heart skipped a beat before she got herself under control again. Their time had been years ago. Her body would do well to remember that.

Stepping into the office, she didn’t bother to wait for Cat to get off the phone as she announced herself, “I do hope you won’t keep me waiting.”

Cat rolled her eyes and wrapped up the phone call with another few words. “Still have a penchant for dramatics I see,” Cat said once her phone was situated back on her desk.

Miranda just cocked an eyebrow and looked back out in the direction of the huge pink statue and then returned her gaze to Cat.

“I know you of all people understand statement pieces. Really, Miranda, have your years in fashion taught you nothing?”

“Statement yes, ugly and gaudy no.” She sniffed before settling regally on one of the sofas. In no world would she sit on the wrong side of a desk, that stopped the moment she became Editor-in-Chief.

“Really, gaudy I can see, it is glaringly pink, but ugly? It’s a rather handsome piece.”

“The face of the panther looks like it got hit by a shovel as a child.”

Cat rounded her desk, phone, pen, and pad in hand. “So does half my staff but that doesn’t affect their performance.” She sat on the couch opposite Miranda. “And considering you’re trying to pull power plays in my own office perhaps it’s left you a bit on the back foot.” 

“No, I believe what’s left me on the back foot is your incompetent security staff. Honestly, they must have been dropped on their heads as children, or perhaps that same shovel that mauled the panther had a go at them. If you have VIPs going in and out of your building your security needs to be on top of what they look like so they may be ready to treat them accordingly.”

Cat scowled. “They gave you a hard time? They had your name and were aware of your appointment with me.”

“Oh, yes, because a celebrity wants to go up to the security desk and give their name like every other plebian out there. Do you want to go through such mundane measures when you go places? I much prefer to not be hassled by suck ups or screamers. To be greeted in the lobby and then led to the elevator without any fuss is not a great deal to ask. Instead I had to find the elevator on my own and then was accosted by a boy that looked like he should be in kindergarten not working as a security guard here. He didn’t know who I was, didn’t know that I had an appointment, nothing.” Her nostrils flared. “He. Called. Me. Ma’am. Cat, he. Called. Me. Miss.”

“Oh dear god, is the boy still standing?” Cat looked to the heavens. “Or do I have to call some sort of cleaning crew to squeegee him off the ground.”

“He’s still standing, but I’m not sure about the state of his underwear. And he might believe that his future career mobility might be more towards fast food than any sort of well paying work.”

Cat snorted. “Well, that’s rather mild for you. I remember the story about what happened to that idiot who called you Miss right after you became art director. Everyone talked about it for weeks afterward, so much that I heard about it on the opposite coast. The sanitation crew, Miranda? For a designer that had to be the worst sort of hell imaginable.”

“That was the point.” She smirked. “But I wasn’t so heartless to leave him without a job in total. Besides, the workers do important jobs and have good benefits and a decent salary. A good portion of New York would kill for a job like that.”

Cat looked at her for a long moment before shaking her head. “I think I’m going to need a drink to get through this. You haven’t changed at all.” She started to get up from the couch.

Miranda reacted immediately. “No. No alcohol or I’ll walk out of this building and never look back.” She could see the decanter of Macallan from her seat on the couch and didn’t want to smell that damned whiskey ever again in her life. Stephen had ruined it for her.

Cat blinked at that and sat down. “Ok, there is a story there, but I’ll let it go for the time being.” She reached over for a glass full of M&Ms and started to eat those instead.

Miranda felt the anger rise within her. “Oh please, because it’s such a secret that my soon to be ex husband is an alcoholic with a pension for whiskey and overly endowed blonde women.” She breathed out harshly. “But that’s of no matter. I’m here for you to interview me about my success in business, not about my divorce. My PR firm is handling anything and everything to do with that mess.” 

Cat offered the cup of chocolate. “Here, chocolate will take the edge off. I know it’s sugar, but you eat like a bird and I know that hasn’t changed.”

Miranda nearly laughed. “Oh I have a beautiful medium rare steak for lunch nearly every day. It kills the office to see me eat such rich food and keep my size.”

“Yes, but when exactly was the last time you had any carbs?” Cat shook the glass again.

“M&Ms are not carbs.” Miranda glared as she took a handful.

Cat smirked. “Right. Not carbs. What are they then?”

“A figment of the imagination.” Miranda slipped a few of the candies in her mouth and chewed, sighing at the taste of chocolate.

“Oh, like that cake after fashion week years ago was a figment of your imagination then? A whole cake, Miranda. Where did you even put it?”

“My thighs probably.”

“Not that I could notice.” Cat’s eyes raked up and down Miranda, taking her all in.

“Twenty years is a enough time to work off even an entire chocolate cake.”

“Twenty-six, really since we met, at that little bakery, and you had a two slices of strawberry pie. The cake was a few weeks later, if I remember correctly, and I do.That year wasn’t good for you on the carbs front.” She looked down at her nearly empty glass and got up to refill it. 

She breathed in and out again as memories threatened to crash over her. No. She had perfected her iron will for a reason. She would not remember a tryst that had only lasted a few weeks of her life and have it derail her entire interview. But that ache of a wound that never healed properly tried to surface, to suffocate her. It had only lasted a few weeks, but god, they had been some of the best of her life. She wished they had continued. She still wondered in the middle of the night what her life would have been like if they had.

But they hadn’t. And that was why she had spent most of her professional life avoiding Catherine Jane Grant. Because Miranda Priestly didn’t spend time dwelling on the past by any means necessary.

And besides, she had fallen again after Cat. With all of her husbands, even if the connections weren’t as strong, and then with…

She sighed. That was another thing she couldn’t look back on. Andrea had left her. And that was that. She was somewhere on this coast, working for Cat of all people. There was a cruel type of irony in there somewhere, a could-have-been lover working for an ex-lover. 

“Twenty-six, has it really been that long?” She asked as if she hadn’t counted the years, the months, the days, that passed after walking into her apartment to find it almost empty of Cat’s things. She had left like a breeze, leaving only scattered remnants that she was even there, a leaf or two here and there, or a favored drugstore pen and a few hair ties as the case had been. She had known the exact amount of time but getting it wrong, well, it was distancing. Or at least she had hoped. Her heart was still clenching in her chest.

“Yes, unfortunately it has. What I wouldn’t give to be in my twenties again.” Cat sighed and poured another batch of M&M’s into her glass before walking back to the couch and sitting down once more. Cat’s eyes flitted over to the decanter of whiskey, but then looked away to dump a handful of chocolate into her palm. 

Miranda hummed and nodded. There was no arguing with where she ended up, but still there were things she would change about the way she’d gotten here. She doubted that there was really anyone in the world that when push came to shove wouldn’t change something about their past.

A silence hung between them for a few seconds, filled with words left unsaid about what had happened between them. Apologies, explanations, platitudes, defensive statements, all died on their tongues before they could meet the air. They had tried this whole reconciliation thing before, but it hadn’t worked out. Now there was no need to rehash old ground. She was here for business, nothing more.

“How many successful businesswomen are you interviewing for this article?” Miranda almost rolled her eyes at herself. Of all the things she could have said to change the subject, her brain had to choose that.

“We’re doing three women in major industries in every magazine this year as part of an ongoing series about the different sort of barriers that women have to get by to get to the top. It’s part inspiration porn part expose. I picked fashion as this month’s because people don’t think that women have a hard time making it since it’s all about women anyway.”

At that Miranda laughed, really and truly laughed. “Can they please tell that to Irv. Goodness knows it might make my life a little easier.” She shook her head. Irv had been beaten down in Paris, but he wouldn’t stay that way for long. He never did, sadly.

“That disgusting little worm is still on the board? If we’re old, he’s ancient. How has his racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, and everything else ass not been removed already?”

“Now that, I have no idea. I’ve been after him since I became editor-in-chief. Of course, it’s mutual. The man really can’t accept that I turned down his many and varied overtures.” She shivered. Workplace sexism when she had first started had been brutal. “He tried to oust me a few months back yet again. It didn’t end well for him.” She smirked at that. It cost her dearly, but his flabbergasted expression had been worth a great deal.

“Oh, I wouldn’t think it would’ve.” She shook her head. “The media has one thing right about you, and that’s that no one should go against you, Miranda Priestly.”

“No, that they shouldn’t.”

Cat flipped an M&M between her fingers absently. “You know the board of CatCo tried to oust me from my own company.”

“Well, since you are still here in this rather lavish office, I believe they weren’t successful.”

“Of course not, I had them all removed without a moment’s hesitation. They were worried about stock prices.” She snorted. “They forgot who is, and who will always be, majority stock holder of this company. They don’t deserve a second chance.”

“I see your foresight to make sure you weren’t beholden to investors paid off.”

“As we knew it would. Because what could a woman ever know about running a business.” She rolled her eyes. “As if CatCo isn’t the third largest media conglomerate in the world or anything.” Cat grabbed up her pen and pad. “And if that isn’t a segue into this interview I don’t know what is.”

Miranda sat back. “Ask away then. But you know, Cat, that I won’t answer if I don’t want to.”

Cat waved that off. “I expected nothing less. I have back up questions for you, don’t worry.” She flipped a few pages and nodded before looking up at Miranda again. “What was the first instance that you remember thinking that it was going to be harder to advance because you were a woman?”

Miranda didn’t even have to think about that, it would forever be branded in her brain. “It was my first day working as an assistant at Runway UK for the editor-in-chief, Alistair Bancroft. He’d sent me off on some errand to the art department and one of the junior editors looked at me as I walked in and said ‘Oi, boys, what do you wanna bet that Bancroft keeps this one around for a good long time just to look at her?’ And I knew that if Alistair wanted to keep me around like that there was nothing that I could do. To make it in the fashion world like I was hoping I needed his recommendation. For that to be in danger just because I was a good looking woman was infuriating.” 

Cat looked over at Miranda, head cocked, for a long second. “That’s why you took the junior editor position in New York.”

“New York was my end goal anyway. I wanted to run the flagship publication, not one of the subsidiaries, but I admit, that was a rather nice perk, getting out of that office.”

“And how much harder do you think you had to work for the promotions that led you to your current position?”

Miranda laughed humorlessly at that. “I don’t think there’s a way to quantify that. I accepted no less than perfection of my work and yet there were men at the same level as I was while I was working my way up who were mediocre at best. They did not work as hard as I did, and yet they’d gotten there before me and made a good deal more than I did as well. I had to maintain perfection to get noticed for a promotion and yet despite the fact that I was the best of the best I wasn’t chosen for quite a few promotions. I practically had to show empirical proof that no one could do what I could to even be considered.”

“Knowing you, you did have empirical proof stashed somewhere to use just in case,” Cat said as she scribbled down her notes quickly.

“I might have,” Miranda said with a smirk. She watched as Cat flipped through her notes once more before her eyes flicked to the myriad of screens behind Cat’s desk, glancing over the headlines for something to do. 

She gasped as a familiar face flashed up on one of the screens. Miranda was off the couch and in front of the screen before she consciously registered her movement. She was about to ask for Cat to turn on the volume but the next second sound was coming out of the speakers.

“...and at popular lesbian bar The Cunning Linguist their annual Hottest Couple of Pride Contest wrapped up in a sizzling conclusion that left the reigning champions on top.”

The picture flashed to two brunettes, one with a questionable white streak in her hair. Honestly, what was she thinking with that fashion statement? But before Miranda really had a chance to get herself worked up into a snit about that the camera panned to Andrea and her apparent companion.

“But the competition was close today, featuring these two challengers. The audience members all had similar things to say about the competition, calling it one for the record books and most assuredly hot. One of the owners of the bar said, “I don’t think I’ve seen the bar this excited since Ellen showed up a few years back.”

The footage rolled over to the two brunette women kissing in a very acrobatic manner. Miranda raised an eyebrow at that. So the white streaked woman had upper body strength, at least she had one thing going for her. But Miranda’s stomach dropped out of her body all the way down to the ground floor of CatCo. If that’s what this couple was doing, she could only assume what would come next.

Sure enough the next shot was Andrea and the other woman kissing for a long moment. She watched as Andrea’s hands slipped from the woman’s hips down to her ass before visibly squeezing. The camera zoomed back in before the blonde woman went to work on Andrea’s neck, leaving some rather dark bruises behind. Anger shot through Miranda at the same time as lust. She would unpack that reaction later, for now fury was reigning. 

“Kiera!” Cat exclaimed, obviously as angry as Miranda. “Honestly, I give that girl one day off and this is what she does with it.”

Miranda turned towards Cat. “You know the blonde?”

Cat nodded, eyes still glued on the screen. “She’s my assistant.” She glared at the screen even harder as Andrea popped back up on the screen. “In fact, I know three people on that stage. The one practically assaulting Kiera is the new cub reporter at The Tribune we hired a little less than two weeks ago. Andy, I think she said her name was. I didn’t really listen, she’s much too bubbly, just like Kiera.”

“Yes, I remember.” The words were quiet as they always were with her, but heavier now. She remembered all too well. Midwestern naivety and the belief that she could change the world with her work had left an imprint on Miranda. 

Cat rounded on her this time. “You know her?” She stabbed a finger at the TV screen.

“Yes, she was my assistant until almost two months ago. She left me in the middle of Paris Fashion Week and threw her phone in the fountain for good measure.” Everyone always left her. Why should it sting more this time?

“Wait, she left you during the biggest time of the year for you and you didn’t blackball her?” Cat squinted at her. “Miranda, there’s the story about the assistant you blackballed at everywhere except TV Guide because she cut herself terribly and couldn’t answer the phone.”

Miranda waved that off. “Oh please, that was the excuse she gave. The cut was no more than a paper cut, she was just horrible at her job. That assistant also tried to purposefully get my first assistant fired when she was called out for it, but of course that never made the news.” 

“The point still stands that you have blackballed people for less.”

Miranda frowned and immediately tried to change the subject. “And how many ex-employees have come after you now? Two, three? There was Livewire and Silver Banshee, twice each. Should you really be questioning how I handle my former employees when you’ve made such a mess of yours? Didn’t even Supergirl throw you off a balcony?”

“I can damn well question whatever I want. And having assistants and ex-employees coming after us is nothing new and you know it. Treating one with kindness after they’ve screwed you over, that’s the real outlier. Spill, Miranda, I won’t drop this and you know it.” Cat crossed her arms and stood with her legs shoulder-width apart, chin up, and eyes narrowed. 

Miranda recognized that stance. She would not get out of this. She couldn’t even leave the building and end the conversation. No, Cat would come after her with every journalistic resource she had until the question was answered. She never took no for an answer like this. It was why she was at the top of her company and why she was such a damn good journalist.

But that didn’t mean Miranda was going to give Cat the answer easily. 

“Surely you must have realized she’d come from Runway. The girl asked for a recommendation even after quitting. She did have an almost stupid amount of bravery at points.”

Cat’s eyes narrowed. “So not only did you not blackball her, you wrote her a recommendation?”

Miranda quoted from memory. “‘Of all the assistants I’ve ever had Andrea Sachs, by far, is my biggest disappointment. And if you don’t hire her you’re an idiot,’ I believe were my exact words.”

“You’re big on damning with faint praise. That’s practically an effusive love letter from you.” Her eyes widened like they always did in that a-ha moment. “No, Miranda Priestly, you didn’t.”

“I didn’t what?” Miranda asked, voice light and airy, like she had no care in the world even as her heart rate started to increase.

“It all makes perfect sense. You’re never warm, even when in love, that’s just who you are, but god you will move heaven and earth for the other person. Heaven and earth this time just happened to be avoiding what you would do normally to anyone who walked out on you like that.”

Miranda barked with humorless laughter, “Oh. I see.” Her gaze turned cold. “So I have to suddenly be in love because I didn’t blackball someone. Because deciding to not deal with a crying, whiny ex-assistant in the midst of the nastiest divorce I’ve ever had is moving heaven and earth? So what, I’m not allowed to take off a problem from my plate?”

She turned from Cat and stalked over to the massive windows looking out onto the balcony and then National City. “And what would you know about how I am when I love, Cat. You never even gave me the chance to move heaven and earth for you. You just disappeared into thin air and you won’t even tell me why all these years later.” 

Cat was silent for a few long moments before padding over to stand beside Miranda, just looking out over the buildings as the sun started to make its journey towards the horizon.

“I realized it later. I realized it when we saw each other again in Paris ten years later and you still would have done anything, fixed anything, that caused me to run in the first place. I realized when I heard how rabidly you defended your girls against the press. But I didn’t realize then.” She stood for another long minute before walking back over to the couch and grabbing her glass full of M&Ms and returning to Miranda’s side.

Miranda took a big handful and wondered why chocolate tasted like regret. “And yet you still won’t tell me, even after realizing all of that. Instead you focus on ex-assistants and hounding me over them.”

Before Cat could reply, a giggle sounded from outside of Cat’s office. They both turned to a rather unexpected sight. The two people who had started this argument between them were now strolling in. Strolling, however, was a generous term. It seemed that Kiera was more supporting a visibly drunk Andrea as they walked towards the desk that Miranda had accurately pegged as the assistant’s desk.

“Shh. Andy, please, there are still people finishing up for the day,” Kiera’s whisper wasn’t truly very quiet in the emptiness of the floor.

“Psssh. Kara, Kara, what does the- what does the elephant say- say to the naked man?” Andrea’s giggling increased.

“What, Andy?” Kara looked the picture of pained patience.

“It’s cute, but can you breathe through it?” Andrea broke out into loud laughter, drawing looks from the few remaining employees on the floor.

Kara turned beet red and kept shuffling Andrea along. “That’s nice, Andy.”

“Oh, oh, I have another. Listen to this, what kind of bees produce milk?” Andrea giggled some more and even hiccupped. 

And here Miranda had thought that that particular reaction was something strictly out of cartoons. Of course Andrea would be the only one in the world who actually hiccupped when drunk. How very Midwestern.

Kara looked to the heavens and whispered something that Miranda couldn’t hear. “I don’t know, Andy.”

“Boobies!"

Miranda, despite herself, snorted. How very innocent for a dirty joke.

“Andy, you better stop now while you’re only slightly embarrassing or else sober you is going to die of secondhand embarrassment. Trust me. I will tell Alex and Astra about this, you won’t live it down as long as you’re in National City.”

Andrea looked up at Kara with wide eyes. “I don’t want to die yet. You know, I haven’t been this drunk in a long time. The ladies at the bar must make really strong drinks and I must not have noticed. I’m sorry Kara that you have to deal with drunk me. But I know lots of jokes so that makes up for it right?” 

“Or you simply had about sixteen drinks. That could have been it.”

Andrea laughed again. “Sixteen! No, I only had- I had um. Not sixteen. I think it was five. Or maybe it was six. That sounds right.”

“Are you including the shots you had?” Kara finally sat Andrea down in her desk chair and rooted around in her desk, unaware of Cat and Miranda watching her every move.

“I didn’t have shots, that was all Lucy. I only had things with peach schnapps in it because I really like schnapps.”

Kara, as Andrea seemed to call her, handed Andrea two pills and a bottle of water. “Take these, drink the water slowly, then we’ll get you down to your desk and get you writing. At least, I hope. You probably need to sober up some first. So I’ll make sure you drink lots of water, and I’ll get you some food.” She leaned her head against Andrea’s for a brief moment. “Let’s hope we can stave off a hangover.”

Miranda looked at Cat who was visibly seething, blush covering her neck and chest and her free hand in a fist at her side, the other clenched until it was white around the glass of M&Ms. Where Miranda was cold in her anger Cat had always been more fiery. And right now she was about to go off like a shot. Miranda didn’t think there would be any harm in joining her. She stepped up to Cat’s side, took the glass of M&Ms, and set it on the nearest surface before nudging the other woman forward. 

Once started, Cat strode forward like a bat out of hell, heels digging into the carpet, and hair flying around her. Miranda followed, more sedately, but with the gait that all of Runway feared, the deadly sway of her hips enough to tell those who had been there long enough that someone would be dead, perhaps almost literally, by the end of her rage.

“Kiera! What is the meaning of this?” Cat’s voice was sharp like a knife and twice as deadly.

Kara turned around like she wasn’t surprised that Cat was there. “Oh, um, Miss Grant, I’m sorry about this, but Andy and I were out at Pride and she remembered that she has an article due for the online about the festivities, but had one drink too many, and so I was just taking care of her to get her back in shape to write. We’ll be out of your hair shortly, I promise.” She fidgeted slightly, adjusting her glasses and smoothing down those atrocious blue shorts she had on. 

“Oh no, you aren’t done here yet. You do not get to run away after what I just saw on Channel six.”

Kara’s eyes widened. “Um, what was on Channel six?”

“You were, Kiera, you and this,” she looked down at Andrea scathingly, “thing, were on Channel six making out like horny teenagers. Exactly what did you think you were doing? You are a member of CatCo, do you think you were representing the company well like that? And on a station that’s not even a CatCo affiliate? Are you and your little girlfriend that desperate for attention?” 

Miranda felt her nostrils flare at the insults to Andrea, but before she could jump in Kara began to stutter and stammer. “What? We? Wait, I- what? Miss Grant, it-”

Andrea giggled and leaned in close to Kara, clearly in an attempt to whisper, despite Kara’s ear being rather far from Andrea’s mouth. “You were right.” She hiccupped. “You can’t talk--” She was cut off when Kara’s hand clapped across her mouth.

“Andy, not right now,” Kara almost begged. The young woman turned to look at Cat. “We really should get going, Andy needs to finish her article and get some food. I’m sorry, Miss Grant, I wasn’t aware that we were being filmed. If I had-” Kara yelped, pulling her hand away. “Andy! You just licked me!”

“Well, you licked Astra!”

“That’s different!”

Cat scoffed. "I would have thought the sharing of bodily fluids between you two would have become commonplace by now, since you two seemed so comfortable on Channel six.”

“Oh for- that wasn’t real! We’re not together! Andy and I hammed it up to give the reigning couple a little competition, but it was consensual and--” This time it was Kara who was interrupted when a wobbly finger reached up and pressed against her lips.

“Ssshhhh. Don’t give in.” Andrea said conspiratorially, as if her words made sense. “Besides, she doesn’t have any legal right, Kara. I mean, about getting angry you’re not on CatCo affiliated news. I was pre-law as well as journalism and English. The lady said the competition is a huge deal, so if Miss Grant wanted coverage then she could have covered it. We were under no contract with any news site about our compliance with the kissing competition.” Andrea nodded, almost rocking herself forward out of the chair except for the fact that Kara was holding onto her shoulder. “And as far as representing CatCo, I read through the contract before signing it and that part is more of a moral thing than a legal thing. She can’t fire you over that either. Though reprimand you, that she can do.” She shrugged and slumped back. “I think she likes you too much to do that though.”

“Oh, so now you decide to use your knowledge of the law, Andrea,” Miranda said, finally stepping forward to stand beside Cat right in front of Kara’s desk. “Where exactly did that knowledge go when you destroyed company property?”

Andrea squeaked and turned red in the face, nearly toppling backwards as she tried to hide behind Kara. “Kara, Kara. It’s her. It is her right, I’m not just having a drunk hallucination, right? Or, or if it isn’t real, tell her that I paid the company back for the phone. I sent the money to HR. Tell, tell her I paid it back, Kara. I paid it back.”

“All right, Andy. Everything’s going to be fine. I think it’s time to get you back to your apartment even. We can work on your article after you take a nap and eat some food and drink some more water.”

“I’ll be fine, Kara,” Andrea said, trying to spin the chair she was in around, but hitting Kara’s legs instead, almost as if she had forgotten what she’d just said.

Miranda just blinked. She had never seen someone so ridiculously drunk. Well, at least since college. It was almost cute. But that was overridden by the amounts of fury directed at Kara for being so familiar with Andrea. And perhaps there was also some ire towards Andrea, for leaving her, for moving on so quickly, but god it didn’t even compare in scale. It didn’t make sense, it wasn’t fair, and she didn’t give a damn.

She leaned down and placed her palms on the desk, looming over Andrea. “Oh, I assure you, Andrea, I am real, and I don’t know just how fine either of you are going to be after this.” Andrea’s eyes widened and she latched her arms around Kara’s leg her mouth gaping open.

Cat hummed her agreement. “Yes, I don’t believe this flimsy excuse about a competition. You will tell us both the truth. Right this instant. Or no matter how much your friend claims I like you, I’ll find a suitable punishment for you, Kiera.”

Kara swallowed visibly at that and perhaps blushed a shade or two darker. Now Miranda would say she qualified as a rouge instead of rose. She stared at the girl for a bit longer. There was something familiar about her, but Miranda had no time, nor want at the moment to place it.

“That is the truth, Miss Grant, I don’t know what else you want me to say. I met Andy out at Pride, we watched the parade together with my sister and aunt, and then we went to the club together with Lucy and they had the competition, which we competed in after Andy got pushed into me and the spotlight landed on us as I was trying not to let her fall over. Andy is my friend, nothing more.” She stood up a little bit taller and stared down Miss Grant for a few seconds before dropping her eyes and starting to fuss with random things on her desk, straightening things that didn’t need straightened. 

Andrea snickered against Kara’s leg, mumbling unintelligible words just before Kara fumbled with a mug of pens.

Miranda looked at Cat and Cat turned to her, fire still in her eyes. She didn’t believe Kara anymore this time than she had the time before. Miranda, for her part, believed Kara at her word, but sensed that there was more going on here than she knew. Why in the world was Cat so incensed about this? She understood why she was furious, but Cat? 

And her own lightbulb came on and perhaps she wasn’t the only one who had fallen for their assistant after all. What absolute cliches they were. It was almost laughable how alike they had turned out after all. 

Cat turned back after finding whatever she needed to in Miranda’s eyes. “We don’t believe you.”

Miranda thought it too much trouble to actually dispute the fact that she did believe them, if only about the events of the day. She was far too curious about what lay beneath.

Andrea started to tap Kara on the leg. “Kara, Kara, it’s almost six, I only have six hours to write my article and edit it. Can you walk me down to my desk?”

Kara looked down at Andrea, back at Miss Grant, and then snuck a glance at Miranda. “Miss Grant, she has a point. If you don’t want a blank space in the online edition, she does need to get writing.”

“I don’t even know if it’s worth keeping her on The Tribune.” She crossed her arms and glared down at Andrea like she was about to murder her.

“Cat, you said her writing was some of the best for a new reporter that you’d seen in ages.” Kara’s stance shifted to defiant, chin up, shoulders back, and chest out.

Andrea pressed her face against Kara’s leg, continuing as if the other two hadn’t spoken. “Oh god I don’t want to get fired, Kara, I need to get my article done.” Her voice had taken on a shaky tone, and she seemed to be in her own little world. “I don’t want to have to move again, Kara. I have to get the article done. I had to borrow money from my dad to move out here. I have to pay him back, I can’t do that if I lose my job. I can get it done, I swear. Miss Grant won’t even know I was drunk, I’ve written articles while drunk. Once, in college…someone spiked the punch and I didn’t know.” Andrea sniffled and whispered just loud enough for them to still hear. “I don’t want to be another disappointment, Kara.”

Kara just looked at Cat and cocked an eyebrow. “You’re always complaining about millennials who don’t want to do their work and want everything handed to them. She wants to do her work, Miss Grant, even drunker than a skunk and maybe about to throw up at some point soon.”

Cat made a disgusted noise. “Fine, go, but that article better be damned perfect, Kiera, or you’re both out of a job.” 

Kara nodded. “It’ll be done.”

She helped Andrea out of her seat and grabbed up her water and the bottle of aspirin, “I’ll order something from the Deli down the way and have it delivered, does that sound ok to you, Andy?”

“Kara, I don’t want you to get fired because of me. You should just throw me under the bus. It’s my fault I’m this drunk.” Andrea sniffled as Kara walked her away.

Miranda’s stomach roiled, watching the two of them walk away. She was torn between going after the girl and comforting her, or ripping her apart. So she just stayed there. Every relationship she had was in tatters at the moment, she shouldn’t rend the pieces of that one even more. The elevator opened for them and whisked them away to parts of the building unknown.

She quietly walked back into Cat’s office and shut the door behind them both and leaned against it. She was mentally exhausted and it was only early evening. She had a feeling that it wasn’t going to get any better though as Cat angrily picked up her M&Ms again and started crunching away.

“You’re in love with her,” Miranda said, softly, as another piece of her ripped away. It was one thing to hear about Cat’s romantic attachments from thousands of miles away. It was another to see them face to face.

Cat froze. “I am not.” She glared at Miranda, but it had no effect.

“Cat, you were about to accuse me of being in love with Andrea before the two of them walked in here. I will be honest with you if you are honest with me.” She closed her eyes for a long moment before opening them and stepping away. Miranda hesitated for just a moment before walking over to Cat’s minibar and grabbing two glasses. She filled them halfway with scotch and turned back around. “One, and only one, or my walking out still stands. But this is needed I think.”

Cat nodded and took the glass before taking a long sip and sighing. “Come out on the balcony. No one will disturb us out there.”

Miranda followed her out into the dry heat of National City. Without the humidity that plagued New York, it wasn’t so bad at ninety degrees and cooling down as the day headed towards an end. She sat down in one of the many plush chairs as wind blew around them gently. They sipped their drinks in silence for a little while before Miranda put her almost empty glass on the coffee table in front of her.

“I did fall in love with her while she was my assistant,” Miranda said, looking out over a sunbleached city. “It was hard not to, really. It was like she almost read my mind for every need I could ever have. She met all the challenges I threw at her and asked for more. She looked at the Dragon, and she still cared. It was intoxicating. I hadn’t had that since…” she trailed off, but the meaning was clear. The only person she had felt this way for was sitting across from her, in love with someone else. “But then she left me in Paris, and then left the City entirely, and it was rather clear that whatever was between us was only one sided. And so I moved on. It isn’t like I could afford to have something like that in my life with the divorce going on still. Page Six would have a field day, and Stephen would try and use it to his advantage.”

She reached out and picked up her glass again, looking at it for a long second, watching the light warp through the golden liquid before slamming the rest of it back and setting the glass down again. The alcohol burned on the way down, but it felt good, better than good really, to have a distraction from the thoughts in her mind.

“I hired her two years ago. She surprised me, my 10:15. Everyone had come in saying how special they were, how much harder they could work than everyone else, but she came in and said that there was nothing special about her. You know I’m not often speechless, but I was then. I still am sometimes. But that wasn’t the start of it. That didn’t come until later until after a hundred late nights at the office working side by side with the girl. My assistants never last long, never past three months, but she did. So I became a mentor and then a friend, and somewhere along the way that bashful, nerdy exterior and a need to help others got under my skin. Soon, my day wasn’t complete without seeing her, without talking to her, and god that’s when I realized it. I’d become the cliche CEO that I said I’d never be, yet here I am. She doesn’t know, can’t know. She wouldn’t feel the same way. After all Andy is much better for her. They’re the same age, and it’s much more acceptable now. No one will look twice at them, and they can live quite happily.”

Miranda hummed her agreement. Cat was right, they would, if that’s what they wanted. They could live very happily together, and perhaps even get married. It would surely make more sense than being with the two of them. And yet, she wouldn’t let Cat believe that all was lost.

“I think Kara was telling the truth about them not being together,” she said, looking at Cat who steadfastly refused to look back. She seemed to be trying to find answers in the bottom of her scotch glass.

“You don’t know her. You don’t know what she’s like. She could be lying and you’d never know it.”

“Cat, do you really think I got to the position I have without being able to tell a liar at a hundred paces, even people I didn’t know before that moment. Besides, you do know her. She seems like one of those people who can’t keep a secret to save their life.”

Cat just snorted and laughed. “You’re more right than you know.”

“So then why don’t you believe her now?” Miranda asked.

“Because it would be easier if it was that way. Besides, since they were thick as thieves in a day, less than that even, who’s to say that Kara couldn’t fall in love with her?”

Now that, Miranda couldn’t actually ascertain without knowing the girl. “So why don’t we figure it out?”

“We?” Cat raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You’re leaving the day after tomorrow and have days chock full of showings if I remember your penchant for busy days. There would be no we about it.”

Miranda took out her phone and stared at it for a long second. This felt important, like something she needed to do to perhaps finally attain her own peace. If Andrea and Kara could fall for each other then she could reason that Andrea was taken and there was nothing she could do. She could force herself to move on more effectively than she had been. 

Or maybe it would just break her heart that much more. There was really no telling how it would go. She wondered if it would be the same way for Cat. If she should really push this. If the opposite was true and if Kara and Andrea were really just going to stay friends would that pain them more too? To know that there was opportunity and not take it.

But what if they did take it? What if this was what led them down that path? Miranda’s mind spun in circles trying to figure out just what path she should take. Plans branched out before her, choices at every turn laid out. It was part of what made her such a good businesswoman, the ability to plan anything and everything in such fine detail in an instant. Here, though, no plan was standing out as the best and what exactly was she supposed to do now?

She took a deep breath and dialed. No reward without risk, she supposed.

When Emily picked up she didn’t even wait for the girl to say hello, she just started rattling off instructions. “Emily, cancel the showings we have tomorrow and the next day and reschedule them for four days from now. Set up a makeshift headquarters from which Runway can be worked on in the interim. Cancel our tickets but do not rebook them just yet. I will inform you of when to do so. Extend our stay at the hotel for at least another five days and tell anyone who thinks that they may slack off because we will be out of the Runway offices for a longer period than planned that they will regret doing so upon my return. That’s all.” 

She hung up the phone and looked at Cat. “We.”

Cat was staring at her like she couldn’t quite decide what to do with Miranda. Miranda had seen the same expression on the other woman’s face not long before Cat had asked her out for a drink. She had made her decision then and from the look on Cat’s face shifting into determination, she had made her decision now. 

“Well then. As our confrontation with them together went so well the first time, I will talk with them on my own first. I’m the one who knows Kara best and they both are my employees so it would make the most sense. Afterwards you can then,” she flipped her hand in the air, reminding Miranda very much of her own ticks, “have your own talk with them if you desire and we can compare notes.” 

“That doesn’t sound very much like a we at all, Cat. And while you may know Kara, you do not know Andrea. I should be the one to speak with them first, if we’re doing it that way. You’re too close to Kara to get anywhere without seeming suspicious. She knows you probably just as well as you say you know her, if not better. Add to that the fact that they are your employees and god knows what sort of HR complaints could be filed against both you and them, it would be better to talk to someone not within the company, which leaves me.”

“Please, nothing was filed when Kara was caught kissing with James, or when Lucy and James were nearly caught in the stairwell, nothing will get filed for this. Although, honestly, the stairwell? His office would have been a much better choice, even with the glass walls. There has to be some spot in there that’s not visible, or he could pull the blinds down. Or even a bathroom.” She rolled her eyes. “The point is that half of your concerns aren’t valid. I’m an investigative journalist by trade, Miranda, I know how to get information out of people. You run a fashion magazine, the world’s best, yes, but still it’s not the same.”

“May I remind you that one of the positions I held on my way to becoming editor-in-chief was junior editor of features where I conducted all of the interviews for our celebrity articles. No one wants to talk less about the actual interesting things in their life than celebrities. Just because the company I run is strictly fashion doesn’t mean I don’t know how to be a journalist. You remember I do have degrees in both, yes?”

“You’re out of practice,” Cat said, waving her off. “Besides, as I said Kara has been my assistant much longer than Andrea ever worked for you. Clearly that points to a level of loyalty that you never had. I’ve had several meetings with Andrea since she was employed here, and she says she’s very pleased with her new position here and that it fits her much better.”

Miranda tasted hot metal and fury. Loyalty. How dare this woman in front of her who had run for god knew what reason lecture her on loyalty.

She swallowed hard and blinked long and slow before speaking in an icy tone. “I learned long ago that any sort of loyalty is false and fabricated. My family was never loyal to me. My relationships have been full of liars. My supposed friends have sold my secrets for money. Where in the world is there loyalty? I may have had a taste here and there, but there is very little loyalty in my life. It took me ripping apart two people's career goals to realize my first assistant and my art director may truly be loyal to me. But the rest?” She shook her head. “I might have a list of artists of all measures who say they will follow me wherever I go, but when it comes down to it, they’ll merely fall in line with the next Top Dog should I be ousted.” 

Cat blinked and blinked again, stunned. “I’m sorry.”

And Miranda didn’t know what she was sorry for exactly. There were a great many things between them to be sorry for other than an almost offhand comment. Perhaps she was sorry for all of them. But there were very few things she could do with sorry.

“But for someone who doesn’t believe in loyalty, you represent it steadfastly for your selected few.” She looked away. “Miranda, I’m still one of them after all of this. And don’t deny it, because it’s true. If I had called you at any time in the last twenty-six years and asked for help you would have been here.”

Miranda’s burst of laughter was loud and short. “That may have been, but we both know you never did, and you never would have. And who says I would have helped? I promised my longest lasting employee a new job, and look where that got him?”

“Do you have plans to give him the next suitable job you come across? Do you have a plan to help ease the pain in the meantime.” She looked at Miranda for a long few seconds. “Don’t tell me you don’t, Miranda. I know you do. Heaven and earth, Miranda, heaven and earth. It’s the same thing.”

Miranda sniffed. “And what if I don’t? I barely kept my own job.” So she was mostly exaggerating, that didn’t mean Cat had to know.

“Bullshit, and we both know it. Irv’s ham handed schemes wouldn’t come anywhere close to actually ousting you. Just because I haven’t been around forever doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten anything. You do have a plan and you’re just trying to avoid admitting it to try and seem like the Ice Queen everyone paints you as. And I know you aren’t. Just stop with this, Miranda, stop with the act.”

“What act, Cathrine? You may have gotten to know the young Miranda who thought it was wonderful to stay up late on a work day, or who thought a nice smoke on a Saturday was a great way to relax, but you know nothing of the past twenty-six years! You haven’t forgotten anything? Well, I certainly haven’t either!” Miranda could feel her control slipping, but her heart ached too much to stop and regain it. “I was struggling both personally and professionally, trying to find my way as an adult and hitting roadblock after roadblock. I finally started thinking I might have found someone who would care enough to remain loyal and steadfast in my life, that something might be going right, only to come home to an empty apartment!” By the end, her whole body was rigid and her voice was barely under a shout.

Cat drank the rest of her scotch in one go then stood up and walked to the railing. Miranda refused to follow. She was too angry, too beaten down. How had a discussion of who was going to talk to Andrea and Kara come to this?

A silence lapsed between them that neither of them seemed to want to break. Miranda debated on leaving, getting up and walking from here and never looking back, but this wasn’t finished and she would stay until it was. They both needed that, if nothing else.

Cat suddenly whipped around and faced Miranda. Her chest was heaving gently and there was a pained expression on her face.

“You’ve always wanted to know why I left. I’ll tell you. Right here, right now, Miranda. I’ll tell you why I couldn’t tell you sixteen years ago. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. And then you’ll get angry at me, and disappointed in me, but you still won’t leave this balcony because I know you. I may not have been with you the last twenty-six years, but the core of a person doesn’t change, Miranda.”

“I thought you trusted me. I thought, finally, someone who understood my drive, and my passions. I thought we could talk about anything, work, miserable childhoods, and everything else. I had gotten off an hour early, desperate to get back to the apartment because my boss said I had strong potential, and that if I kept up the good work I could be promoted sometime in the next few months. I had gone out to that little bakery where we met, and got home-” her breath caught in her throat. “I got home to find you were gone. No note. No sign that you’d even lived there for almost three months, save a few shirts in the laundry, a bottle of unfinished shampoo in the shower, a few hair ties lying around, and a hairbrush underneath the bathroom counter. Why, Cat, just why?”

“I--” Cat took in a deep, shaking breath before continuing. “Before I came to New York I was involved with this man named Brent Foster in Metropolis. It was serious for a time but then he broke it off because I was too dedicated to my work. I didn’t find it a real loss honestly, especially since I was being transferred from the Daily Planet in Metropolis to the outpost in New York for the TV contingent.”

She walked over to the chair where she had been sitting before and sunk down on knocking knees. “He faded into the background, especially with all that happened between us. I didn’t think of him at all until two months into our relationship and three since I’d left Metropolis. We had been careful. We used protection, I was on the pill, and yet somehow I got pregnant anyway. Of course I did. Because that is the sort of luck I have.”

She laughed, but it sounded almost watery and Miranda almost wanted to reach out to comfort her. Almost.

“I didn’t, I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t ready for a child. But neither did I want to get rid of him. I knew that from the second I took that test in our tiny bathroom after two missed periods. It was probably a dumb choice looking back on it, but I don’t regret it. But I regret so much else about everything surrounding it.”

Cat looked up at Miranda with watery eyes, but no tears were falling. She looked lost and alone and young, so very young again. Miranda could see that same twenty-four year old who she’d fallen in love with years ago.

“I regret that I ran from you instead of telling you, but Miranda I was so scared. I was scared that you’d throw me out. I was scared that you would tell me to get rid of it. I had come up with so many bad scenarios in my mind about what could happen that I couldn’t see what I knew to be the truth, that I trusted you.” She ran her hands through her hair. “I just remember you saying in passing one night that you weren’t ready for kids yet and I just took that and I ran with it, quite literally. I packed up everything the next day while you were at work and took the next train to Metropolis and found Brent and told him I was pregnant and next thing I knew we were married and Brent was overjoyed that he was having a kid. He wasn’t anywhere near happy to have me back though, especially when I started working harder than ever, getting the money for CatCo, for the TV show, everything. I wanted to work so I could forget how scared I was.”

She picked up her empty scotch glass and looked at mournfully, but didn’t get up to refill it. Cat just swirled the dregs around slowly as she tried to find her words again.

“You would have said the right thing. You would have been a great mother. You are now. If only I would have asked we could have had that.”

Miranda sat there stunned. Of all the things that she had thought that Cat had run away for, this was not one of them. She cleared her throat as her brain thought through it all.

“And honestly, the reason I couldn’t tell you ten years later after everything had calmed down was because I was ashamed of everything even after that. Brent didn’t like that I worked a lot before. He liked it even less after I had Adam. He said that I was an unfit mother. I ran away from you, only to lose my baby in a nasty custody case. I barely even fought, Miranda, because somewhere deep down I thought he was right. Then I lost him entirely when Brent moved as far from me as he could get. I didn’t pursue him then either. What kind of mother does that? I didn’t see my son for twenty-two years. I thought about him every day, but talking about it, admitting it to others what I’d done? I couldn’t. I can barely talk about it now even though I’ve finally reconciled with him because of Kara. I can only talk about it because it’s you.”

She put the glass down and then her head in her hands. “God, Miranda, the guilt, sometimes it feels like it’s trying to claw me apart from the inside out. It always has, maybe even more so now that I have Carter. The disparity between the two. I was there for Carter every step of the way. Why couldn’t I be for Adam? Why?”

And with that Miranda finally did break. She moved from her seat and kneeled in front of Cat and placed her hands on Cat’s legs gently. Cat didn’t acknowledge her, though. Miranda waited a few seconds before gently touching Cat’s hands and drawing them away from her face. She replaced Cat’s hands with her own, tenderly cupping Cat’s cheeks. Cat’s eyes finally met hers after a long moment.

“Is Adam happy and healthy?” she asked.

Cat just nodded minutely.

“Do you plan on mending the relationship between the two of you to the best of your abilities?”

Again Cat nodded. 

“Then you’ve done and will do all you can.”

“But I could have done more. I could have--”

Miranda cut her off. “You were young, and career driven. You fought for him, in a custody battle. You didn’t just let Brent take him away from you right from the beginning. Sometimes the best thing for a child is to let them go. If you kept fighting for him, all it would have done is create discord. I’ve been to enough therapy appointments with my daughters to see the damage caused by constant fighting and arguing and court battles. They are almost eleven and I am still fighting to keep majority custody. But I’m also at a different place in my life than when you were fighting for custody of Adam. Brent was at a point in his life where he could handle a child, you weren’t. It was and is as simple as that. It doesn’t make you a bad mother.”

“But I didn’t try to see him at all. I could have at least done that. Something. Anything.” She sniffled, but still the tears were not falling, stoic until the end. 

“Did you really do nothing? Did you really give him no money, no gifts, no holiday cards when he was growing, nothing?”

“Well, of course I gave him money. He has a trust just like Carter does. He’s using the money to pursue a degree in film at the moment.”

“Then you have done something, and he appreciates it and is using it, not leaving it there to spite you. I am not saying you couldn’t have visited, that you couldn’t have done more, because that is the truth, but what I am saying is that you did what you could and what you thought was best, and that is all you can do. And to feel guilty over Carter is foolish. To treat him the same as Adam would be a disrespect to Adam himself because it would have shown you did not learn, that you did not care. You care. You care greatly. Oh, darling, you always have underneath it all.”

Cat took a few slow, deep breaths. Her body was shaking with silent sobs. Miranda had a feeling she hadn’t been like this in front of anyone in literally years, probably decades. She stood up from the ground and grabbed Cat’s hands and pulled her up as well. She led them carefully to the small sofa and sat them both back down and wrapped her arms firmly around Cat.

“So do you, you care. You wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

“And so I do. You were right.”

They sat in silence as the sun really started to sink in earnest, lighting up the sky in gold and pink and purple. Miranda looked out at the colors and wondered why it was impossible to capture the true beauty of a moment, a sunrise, a sunset, a death, a birth, a confession of love, in art. Oh she had seen breathtaking dresses modeled on a great many moments, but they never quite shined as brightly as the real thing. And this moment, well this moment would be too hard to capture to even try.

“I really am sorry,” Cat finally said when her body had stopped shaking. Miranda still had her arms around the other woman though, and wasn’t planning on letting go anytime soon.

“I know you are. I am too. For a lot of things. But sorry is just the beginning of working past the issue.”

Cat slowly wrapped her arms around Miranda, resting her cheek against Miranda’s shoulder. “I think we can work past the issue given time.” She cleared her throat and sniffled. “Perhaps, as you’ve cleared a few days in your schedule, we could use some of it to get to know each other again. Maybe have a lunch out, or a dinner together? If you would be willing?”

Miranda closed her eyes and leaned against Cat. The other woman had been right. She would have forgiven Cat sixteen years ago if she would have told her about Adam. She would have tried to salvage their relationship. Because right now, if there weren’t other people in their lives, she was almost positive that she would try to do just that.

“I would enjoy that, quite a lot, really.”

Cat sighed, relaxing. She tucked herself further into Miranda’s neck, and Miranda felt just the slightest hint of moisture. “Good.”

“Yes. It is.”

They cuddled for another little while before Cat pulled back just a bit to look at Miranda. “I still say that I should go first with Kara and Andy.”

Miranda laughed and laughed until her sides hurt. She just leaned her forehead forward as she finally calmed down and shook her head. “I think we should let them be for a little bit, and watch silently. If further inquiry is needed we should work together. During lunch we can come up with a plan, and work together to get our answers. We always worked better as a team.”

Cat scoffed. “That was for doing dishes, because you hated wearing the rubber gloves. Don’t think I didn’t see through your reasoning about being better at drying and putting them away in the correct cabinets.”

“There is nothing wrong with me hating the feel of latex gloves.” She shivered delicately. “Or hating mushy food touching me.” She grimaced.

“Oh I bet you were a hoot when your daughters began to wean off breastfeeding.” This time Cat shivered, and she carefully untangled herself from Miranda’s grasp. “We should head inside, and get going. Carter’s with his father tonight, so I have the evening free if you’d care for dinner?”

Miranda thought about it, mentally going through her schedule quickly. Her afternoon had certainly been completely cleared for Cat. She had known it would take some time to be interviewed, and as far as she was aware, Emily hadn’t scheduled anything for later either just in case.

“I think that would be amiable.” The corners of Miranda’s mouth curled up into a smile.

Cat gave a little smile as well. “Good. I’ll resurrect that rice dish from decades ago.” She leaned forward and before either could stop it, Cat pressed a quick kiss to Miranda’s cheek. When she pulled back she was beet red and looking at the ground. “Right, well, this way.” She then promptly stumbled just a little bit before righting herself and going on her way. 

Miranda just stared after her for a moment. Cat Grant getting flustered at a kiss on the cheek. Who would have thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'd love to hear what you thought!  
> Thanks for reading and hope you return for chapter 3!  
> Lots of love,  
> CBC and Inkheart9459  
> (PS. WE DON'T OWN DWP OR SUPERGIRL!)


	3. Chapter 3

Kara collapsed in an extra office chair like her leg muscles weren’t made of steel and couldn’t keep her standing for a minute longer. Oh my Rao. Miss Grant and Miranda had just taken them to task for kissing on TV. Miss Grant thought she was with Andy. It was an unmitigated disaster. She hoped helping Andy out with the article would distract her from the temptation of listening to what Miranda and Cat might be talking about. She wasn’t sure she could handle what they might be saying.

 

And Andy’s words right before they had left were still playing in her mind. “Andy and I are friends, nothing more,” she had said. Then Andy had whispered, “but we could be,” quiet enough so only she could hear it. She wondered if Andy knew she had heard it. It had been quiet enough that a human probably wouldn’t have, but then again she had explained she had very sensitive hearing earlier.

 

That left the question though, did she address what Andy had said, or did she just leave it alone? She didn’t really have an answer for that and it was panic inducing to say the least. Because Kara didn’t know what she would say if she did address it. How could you know what to say if you didn’t actually know what you wanted to do about the situation? She was head over heels in love with Cat, but yet she didn’t want to outright reject Andy either because that kiss at the club had been…head spinning to say the least. And Andy was actually attainable and interested apparently. Why should she call the whole thing off just for a crush that wouldn’t ever actually happen?

 

Kara shook herself. Right, well, not the thing to be thinking of right now. She looked to Andy who was sitting in her desk chair humming and typing away on her computer like she didn’t have a care in the world. For as drunk as she still probably was, Andy presumably didn’t have many cares right this second.

 

“I’m really glad I can touch type, Kara, because these words on the screen are kind of rocking back and forth. Man I am so drunk.” She typed a few more words. “Um, what’s that word for like, when you want to jump up and down because you’re so happy. It starts with an e I think?”

 

Kara just looked at Andy for a long moment and shook her head. Oh yeah, no cares in the world.

 

Andy giggled. “Oh man, there was this one time in college, I think it was freshman year like the first few weeks when the workload was light and I was really new to the party scene that I went out and got even drunker than I am now. It was bad, but I’ve never actually blacked out, so I remember that whole night and I thought there for a while I could actually like hear colors. Yet, I managed to go home after the party and do my chemistry homework, and it was all right? I don’t even know.” She giggled again and then hiccupped. “Lamest drunk story ever, but I have worse ones. I think.” She went back to typing. “Ecstatic! That’s the word.”

 

“So you’re going to remember how you acted in front of both Cat and Miranda tomorrow?” Kara asked, feeling sorry for Andy if that was the case. Some things were better to forget. 

 

Andy’s fingers paused, hovering above the keyboard. She looked at Kara, then back to the screen, and once more at Kara. “Maybe after my article I’ll drink another bottle of tequila or something and blackout for once in my life. That might make me forget that Miranda was there and I nearly cried in front of her again. It sounds appealing, actually. To forget I was once again humiliated in front of Miranda fucking Priestly.”

 

She frowned at that. In some ways she wished that she could forget, but then again, she had forgotten everyone on Earth when she had been under the Black Mercy. Waking up and realizing that had been rough. She didn’t truly want to forget, not really. What she did wish for was that things could change, that somehow the world would align and let her deepest desires come to life.

 

Kara shook herself. Well, there was no use for those thoughts. She looked at Andy’s frozen hands over the keyboard and decided that a distraction was necessary.

 

“I mean, I don’t have drunken stories from college since I don’t drink, but I do have a few interesting stories of my own. I took biology for my science elective second semester freshman year. One of the labs we had to do involved live rats. I think we were studying the effect of stimuli or something, I don’t really remember that part, but I remember what happened next. My lab partner and I were given a rat and a little cage that was probably only about a foot long and six inches wide, made out of completely clear plastic. We were supposed to put the rat in there and then perform all the tests in that. Except when we got back to our table my lab partner accidentally dropped the rat, and the rat then decided that it was going to head for the hills. Really, really, really fast. I barely saw where it went.” 

 

And she really had barely seen where it’d run off to, the little bugger was that fast. She supposed any animal was fast when they thought their life was on the line. But that rat might have taken the cake. 

 

“So since we’re freshman, my lab partner and I thought that the best course of action was to not tell our TA and actually try and find the thing ourselves. My lab partner and I split up and started to look around.” 

 

She’d actually used her x-ray vision and super hearing to track the rat, but since it was moving so quickly and under so many heavy things that a human couldn’t lift, she hadn’t been able to catch it after a few seconds like she would have normally. So instead she had bumbled around the room, trying not to avoid knocking into people, and ducking out of sight whenever the TA looked her way.

 

“While we were looking around I managed to trip over someone’s backpack because I wasn’t paying attention and then I went sprawling forward. Right into the TA. And he went right into the cage of leftover rats on the table behind him. Which of course the rats in there go scattering everywhere as soon as the top pops off on impact. So now there are like ten rats running around this room and my TA and I are on the ground. He just looked at me like he couldn’t believe I was so dumb and then looked at the rat cage in horror.”

 

He had started running around like a chicken with his head cut off actually, trying to catch the rats, which hadn’t worked at all. Running around after rats tended to only scatter them more. It wasn’t a hard concept, really, but yet the guy hadn’t gotten it.

 

“So he pops up and tries to catch them. Then the rest of the class figures out what’s going on because they have like rats running over their shoes. Everyone then tries to get in on it. So there’s this entire lab period running around trying to catch rats all because we were too clumsy to get our rat in the cage. It was absolute chaos and by the time it was over three pieces of glassware had been smashed, the lab was pretty much a bust for everyone, and the maintenance department actually had to come in with traps to actually catch the rats. Apparently they weren’t all ever accounted for even with the traps.”

 

Andy busted out laughing and turned to Kara. “That sounds like such a train wreck.”

 

“It really, really was. When the TA figured out why it all started I swear he was going to strangle us both. Every experiment after that he literally wouldn’t let us set up anything for fear of us screwing it up. It was sort of humiliating.” She could actually feel herself blushing at the thought of it and it had been six years since that had happened.

 

“Oh, you wanna hear a story that tops that one?” Andy asked, turning to face Kara fully, her computer and article momentarily forgotten. 

 

Kara’s eyebrows rose. “You have a story that tops that one?”

 

“Of course I do. Kara, I was a good student first, but a weekend or so a month I went sort of wild. That’s a lot of chances for dumb shit to happen to you. And also for you to do dumb shit to yourself honestly.” 

 

“So another drunken adventure of yours that didn’t end in finished chemistry homework?” Kara asked.

 

“Oh, not even close, there was no homework done at all in this case.” She looked to the sky. “So I turned twenty one during the late fall, which is of course blisteringly cold in Chicago. But my friends and I went out anyway because I was finally, finally twenty-one. It’s a rite of passage you know. So we were dressed in outfits that definitely weren’t weather appropriate, but by the time we actually went out we weren’t really feeling the cold anyway because alcohol at the bars is way too expensive to not go at least buzzed. So we get there, I have my first legal drink at a bar, we have a nice time, we leave. And that, of course, is where it gets weird.”

 

“Weirder than rats?” Kara teased and gave her a big smile.

 

“Haha.” Andy hiccuped. “Very funny. Sssh, or I won’t tell the story.”

 

“Fine, fine, I suppose.” She gestured for Andy to go on.

 

“So we get on the bus to go home. It was the same one we always took, so we weren’t paying attention. Somehow in all of our post party haze we actually missed our stop. And this is the last bus of the night. So we’re sort of screwed at this point. So we just get off at the next stop and start to walk back home. We’d missed like six stops somehow so it was sort of far, but it still didn’t put a damper on the party we were all having. So while we’re walking back we come across this park, and one of my friends, in her infinite wisdom, decided that she needed to go swing on a swing set in this park right then. As drunk as we all were, we agreed because who doesn’t love swings.”

 

Kara did like swings. They sort of felt like flying in a lesser way. After she had stopped using her powers when she was fourteen, it was the closest she had come really to it until she’d become Supergirl.

 

“But of course it’s the middle of the night and we’re drunk enough that we don’t stick to a path on our way to the swings, we just sort of walk right through the trees in our quest to find a swing in a park at four in the morning. Because you know, that’s totally safe. But somewhere along the way this strand of trees in the park wasn’t really super maintained because I actually fell into this little pit of dried out plants covered, and I mean covered, in burrs, lots of the huge round ones that just do not want to let go to top it off. So when I finally struggle back out of that hole and catch up with my friends, now covered in those burrs from head to toe, they had found the swings. So then I did the reasonable thing and went to swing. The burrs dug in further, though, so that sucked.”

 

Kara winced. She had no idea what that was supposed to feel like, but it didn’t sound like it would be a good feeling so it seemed like a good reaction.

 

“Afterwards we finally went home just as it was starting to get light out because it was literally that late. Most of my friends and I lived in a group of apartments that was specifically for students and so we knew a lot of the people living there from class and around campus and such. My current boyfriend at the time, the one I moved to New York with, actually, lived there too which was cool at the time. Until I walked into the lobby of our complex and he was there talking with one of the people manning the desk about a maintenance issue in his apartment. I’m still covered in burrs, probably looking like the creature from the black lagoon or something. And we hadn’t started dating that long ago so we were still in that phase where you want to do everything you can to impress them so it was like level ten embarrassing.”

 

Kara made a sympathetic noise. That did sound horrible. But it wasn’t worse than the rat story for her just yet. She wondered what in the world was going to come out of Andy’s mouth next.

 

“So, Nate walks up to me with this half amused half horrified expression and asks me ‘Did a bush get on your bad side, Sachs?’ And I swear to you my next words were ‘No, but can I get on your bad side?’ and then I fucking winked. Which really proves that drunk me hasn’t changed since junior year of college considering earlier. Nate just snorted and said something along the lines of not covered in burrs and told me to find him tomorrow after I’d sobered up if I still wanted that, then kissed me on the cheek and went back up to his apartment. And if that wasn’t enough the guy working the desk took one look at me and told me there was no way that I would be able to walk up to my apartment like that because I was leaving burrs everywhere just standing in the lobby. So my friends had to go up to our apartment and grab me a change of clothes and a sheet because the asshole wouldn’t let me change in one of the bathrooms downstairs, or even inside. He made us go outside for me to change. I totally reported him for that later, but yeah, at the time drunk me just went along with it.”

 

A spark of anger flashed through Kara and she wished she’d been there to tell the guy to stick it where the sun don’t shine. Who literally wanted to be that much of a pain in the ass?

 

“But anyway, my friends and I got it into our minds that what we were going to do, because the guy had been such an asshole about it, was take all the burrs that had fallen off my dress while we were changing and stuff them into the sheet we had and carry them upstairs for use later. Which was both the best idea we’ve ever had and the fucking worst, let me tell you. So we get up to our apartment, shower, and then sleep it off of course. But then we find the sheet of burrs the next morning and hatch this great plan. We were going to scatter the burrs all over the lobby, but only when it was the guy’s shift so he would have to deal with them. Of course that means we have to keep the sheet full of burrs and then open it up and close it every couple of days or so. That led to burrs being all over the lobby for the next month and a half, which was so amusing, because the dude knew it was us, but also it led to burrs randomly finding their way into weird places in our apartment. We literally found a few when we were moving out at the end of second semester, literal months later, which was hilarious. But then of course asshole dude decides to make a fuss to the upper management and framed the burrs as some sort of vandalism and tried to get us evicted. Over burrs. It was ridiculous. And he didn’t win that one. But there was a good week or two that we were worried that we would get kicked out. As a parting gift I gave the guy one of the burrs we found while moving out, though. He turned chartreuse and I enjoyed every second of it.”

 

Kara just stared at Andy for a few seconds. “Alright, yup, that totally does top the rat story, not for train wreck factor, but in everything else.”

 

Andy nodded. “I’ll agree with that. I have never rendered an entire class completely useless before.” They settled into silence before Andy piped up again. “I’ve gotten a teacher fired though. A substitute back in middle school, but still.”

 

Kara looked slightly horrified. “Wait, what why?”

 

“Oh yea it wasn’t like we set out to originally or anything but... We were taking a test, and I got a bloody nose. It happened a lot, when I was a kid, and I got up to ask him to use the restroom. I was, it was seventh grade, so I was twelve. I caught a glimpse of his book before he snapped it shut, practically shouting at me. I was standing there with blood all over my hands, trying not to drip, just wanting to ask to go to the bathroom and the nurse’s office. I was allowed to go, and when I got back I was going past the window when I saw him pull out a silver thermos, take a drink, and then slip it back into one of the drawers. It was weird, cause he was looking around the classroom, as if he didn’t want anyone to see. Then he picked up his book again, looked around the classroom, and opened it. When I went back in, I walked straight up to the desk and he snapped the book shut just like before. But something was sticking out of the corner. I sat back down and mentioned it to one of my friends, and she told me that we should try and grab it, to see what it was. So we hatched a plan. It wasn’t really that good, but it worked.”

 

Andy shook her head and Kara wondered what exactly she was thinking. She remembered being twelve and thinking plans were brilliant when in fact they were the exact opposite. Twelve had really been the last time she’d been a kid. That had been the year that Astra had told her about Krypton dying and the year she’d been arrested. After that being a kid took a back seat.

 

“She went up to ask to go to the bathroom, but instead she waited just outside the window, watching. I was being really careful about not being caught watching him too. A few seconds later he took a drink again, then opened his book. I pretended to sneeze, and covered my face with my hand to get up and grab a tissue. He snapped the book closed again and told me to not make so much noise. Then as I was pretending to blow my nose, my friend came back into the classroom, accidentally banging the door open too loudly, and he started to get angry about her interrupting the test. While he wasn’t paying attention to me, I leapt forward and grabbed the book off the teacher’s desk, and ran away while shaking it. And lo and behold a porn magazine fell out.”

 

Kara’s face shifted from slightly horrified to full on disgusted. How in the world could a teacher think that that was appropriate? Teaching the next generation was an honor on Krypton, not something to be brushed off, and especially not something to be disrespected in that manner.

 

“The class freaked out, of course, and he was shouting at us, and one of the teachers from the other rooms came in wondering what was going on, and she saw the magazine. The teacher started spouting bullshit about him finding it on me! As if it was mine! The whole class started yelling and screaming that I had found it on the desk. It was a disaster, and the teacher called the office and they were all storming into the room a few minutes later, to complete chaos. I was crying, cause I was afraid of getting in trouble if they believed the substitute that it was mine. But I wasn’t a bad student, I was an honors student with citizenship awards and teachers loved me, and the entire class was saying it wasn’t mine. 

 

“And the campus supervisor goes up to the sub and takes the book and the magazine from me and tells me to sit down. It was madness because even the principal couldn’t get the class to calm down. The supervisor goes up to the sub and suddenly asks, ‘do I smell alcohol?’ and the man starts getting angry and then my friend says to check his silver container. The sub was beet red in the face. ‘It’s just water, every teacher is allowed to have water! Our throats get dry!’ So then two of the office staff go and look around the desk and my friend says it’s in one of the drawers and sure enough when they pulled it out and sniffed it it was not water. They called the cops and then the supervisor and a few others hauled him out and one of the office staff sat with us the rest of class and calmed us down. I was a wreck the whole rest of the day for obvious reasons.”

 

Kara looked at Andy for a long moment and just couldn’t imagine what that had been like. She did know the panic over getting someone who deserved it fired, though. She felt a blush starting on her cheeks. Her first month at CatCo had had something similar in style if not the exact reason.

 

“Wow, um, that must have been terrible. He definitely deserved it though.” Kara hoped he was working as far away from kids as possible now and shivered.

 

“Oh, yeah, it was. Creepy, too creepy, but honestly at the time I was way too worried about getting in trouble myself for getting someone fired.”

 

Andy typed for a few minutes while Kara watched silently. She wanted to reach out to comfort Andy, but didn’t quite know if she was allowed. They were friends, they had even kissed among other things, but that had been a competition. There had been a spark, though, even though she was so totally a goner for Cat. But none of that changed that they had only been friends for a limited time and the boundaries hadn’t really been set yet.

 

“Well, at least you were a kid. I accidentally got someone fired when I first started working here,” Kara said. She didn’t know about physical boundaries between them, but she could still do something to make Andy feel a bit better. “Being Cat’s assistant was my first job out of college so at the time I was still trying to figure out how the business world worked, unfortunately for this guy, Wilson, I had a sort of steep learning curve.”

 

Kara felt her cheeks heating up at the thought of her first few weeks here. She had screwed up so many things with Miss Grant and with everyone else too. It was the price she paid for never working retail in college, she supposed, not knowing how a workplace actually, well, worked.

 

“You know those little favors you do for coworkers that aren’t technically ok by company rules but everyone does them anyway because they aren’t really that bad or anything?” 

 

Andy nodded and turned to look at Kara, taking a break from her write up. Kara wished she hadn’t as she blushed harder.

 

“I didn’t really get that I wasn’t supposed to talk about those. And one time Miss Grant asked if Wilson would have the layouts on her desk by end of day and I said that they would be on her desk, but that Mara would be the one completing them because Wilson wanted to take off early to drive to a concert up in San Francisco that night and he wanted to beat rush hour. Miss Grant called him that minute and told him that if music was more important than his job then he better be happy with his choice and fired him. No one talked to me for a month after that because they were afraid I was the office rat. It was a bad time.”

 

“Ouch, that’s a bad one. I remember that learning curve, though, it was bad. My first real job was being Miranda’s assistant. I did some babysitting here and there, but I was really fortunate my parents wanted me to finish with school and focus on my studies. I think we both sort of jumped right into the fire with those jobs.” Andy turned back to her computer screen and frowned at it. “I think this needs a couple more paragraphs but then it should be good. It was a thousand word write up, right?”

 

“Yeah it was. You write fast. Like really fast since we’ve been talking this entire time. How do you do it?”

 

“I’ve always been able to write fast. Working for Miranda just made sure I could write and talk at the same time. You sort of had to in order to survive as her assistant.” She snorted and shook her head. “There are way too many stupid stories I have from that nine months, but I guess it served me well. I have a job that I want and a fashion sense. Kara, I don’t think you understand how horrid I dressed before. Like, there was a plaid skirt I had that should be burned and then the ashes should be burned again. I can’t believe I ever thought it was ok.”

 

“What’s wrong with plaid skirts?” Kara asked, thinking of all the plaid in her own wardrobe and frowning.

 

“Nothing intrinsically if the colors are complementary and it’s paired with the right pieces.” Andy side eyed Kara for a second. “Miss Grant totally picks on you about your clothes, doesn’t she?”

 

Kara sputtered to deny it, but that just caused Andy to smirk.

 

“Thought so. You’re clothes are nowhere near as bad as I was, but they are a little too cutesy to be fashion forward. They match your personality well though, and you don’t look sloppy. You’re very cute.” Andy threw a little wink in Kara’s direction before looking back to her article. “You wouldn’t get a nod, but the Fashion Queen herself wouldn’t purse her lips, so that’s saying something. I got the lip purse a couple of times.” 

 

Kara swallowed loud enough that it could be heard in the small cubicle even by human ears.

 

“I’ll tell you about dumb things I did as assistant, though, the ones even worse than asking how to spell Gabbana on my first day… and not even knowing who Miranda was, that was pretty bad. Though it doesn’t top the time I got tricked into walking upstairs in Miranda’s townhouse.” Andy visibly shivered. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt closer to death than that instant. If there’s anyone that can kill with a look, it’s Miranda.”

 

No, Kara thought, if there was anyone who could kill with a look it was actually her, but she knew what Andy was trying to get across. Cat’s glares were pretty fearsome too.

 

“So it was my fourth month working there and my ex and I were still on mostly good terms and he called me while I was waiting for the Book like three weeks after that disastrous time I walked up the stairs. He was already off work and it was like ten p.m. so almost everyone was gone from Runway too. And he was hot and bothered.”

 

Kara gasped, knowing where this was going immediately. Except she hoped it didn’t go that way because if that had happened to her she would have died of embarrassment. 

 

“Oh yeah, exactly. So he wanted to have phone sex with me while I was at work. Obviously, I didn’t, and tried to convince him that I would be home soon and that it would be better in person, but he wasn’t buying it and had to be up early for his shift and said I wouldn’t be home before he was asleep. To keep him happy I finally just agreed and rolled myself into the darkest, most isolated corner of the office and started to tell him just what I wanted to do to him. Which was a lie because mostly at that moment I just wanted to knock some sense into him, but.” She shrugged.

 

“Anyway, he was finally close and then I heard the click of heels on tile and by then I knew exactly how Miranda walked and of course it was her. I panicked and accidentally hit speaker and that Sidekick I had had some intense speakers because suddenly the entire office is filled with Nate moaning my name and the obvious sounds of him beating off. Miranda chose that exact moment to turn the corner and she just looked at me and raised an eyebrow and said ‘I see you’re using company time effectively, Andrea,’ and then just walked into her office. I think I died that day and you’re just talking to my ghost. I didn’t get fired though. Miranda probably thought it was enough punishment for the both of us that we’d had that little moment.”

 

Kara just sat there horrified for Andy for a moment. “I think that tops the time I brought Miss Grant Chipotle for lunch by like a lot.”

 

“I honestly thought about moving to Guam for a hot second and changing my name, maybe becoming a sheep farmer, or something. Literally I did not have sex with Nate for a month after that because I would just think about what had happened and freeze up.” Andy looked down at her lap. “Funny, now I know it wasn’t because I was embarrassed that Miranda knew about my sex life, it was more that she knew about it with him. Not exactly great when you have a crush on someone.” She ran her hand through her hair and went back to typing. “I think you can look over this in a minute. I have two more lines I think.”

 

“Wow, Andy, you’ve had a wild ride.”

 

“That literally isn’t even the half of it. When they say that a million girls would kill for that job I don’t think they realize that death might also be a possibility. I was on the phone with my coworker when she was hit by a taxi while trying to rush back to the office with a whole lot of scarves. The entire reason I was even on the phone with her was because Miranda commanded me to tell her that I was taking her place on a trip to Paris Fashion Week which she’d been literally starving herself for for months.She was eating maybe four little cheese cubes a day or that’s what it seemed like anyway. It was terrifying to watch really, because no one seemed concerned about her eating disorder. The fashion industry.” She shook her head.

 

Kara thought of a bunch of her own work stories, but most of them were only funny if the person knew she was Supergirl. The scare with Miss Grant was enough for her. She pursed her lips and thought for a minute. She could alter one of the stories just a little bit, if she needed.

 

“At the end of my first year working for Miss Grant after I’d actually figured out how in the world an office worked but honestly before I’d really figured out Cat, I don’t know if I have yet, either, but I knew less then than I know now. Every time that Cat writes a story herself inevitably things...well they go very wrong very quickly if not handled properly. Except this was the first time Miss Grant had ever written a story while I was employed here so I didn’t know that. So while the rest of CatCo battened down the hatches I just flitted around like normal. So on the day that Cat was scheduled to write the piece I walk in and Cat fires off this list of things that are impossible. Now there’s a fair amount of stuff that she gives me that’s difficult to do, but this was impossible.”

 

Even with super powers it had been impossible. She could break the sound barrier, lift millions of tons, freeze people solid, and fly, but she couldn’t achieve everything on that list in a day. She didn’t even know how Cat could come up with such a list. Who had that type of imagination?

 

“So when I go out and try accomplish everything on this list, things start going wrong, like really wrong. Like invading Russia in the middle of winter wrong. Miss Grant wanted me to find one of three rhinos of a certain species that are left on the planet and bring one to the article’s launch party. There are none in the US, so I’m going around to all the zoos in the area trying to find rhinos that look the most like this species and trying to get them to agree to bring the thing to a museum of all places. While I was doing that, I tripped and landed in a rather large pile of poop. So I’m covered in poop up to my lower calf on one leg and it smells horrible but there’s nothing I can do about it. So I just continue to go down the list of things Miss Grant wants. Two things later I was on the beach fifty miles from here looking at a bunch of sea caves that Miss Grant wanted pictures of when a wave comes out of nowhere and hits me. I have no change of clothes with me either, so while the poop isn’t an issue anymore, I’m soaking wet.”

 

And at the time she hadn’t flown in years and hadn’t wanted to then either, so she couldn’t even dry herself quickly. Her phone had miraculously survived though and so had the camera James had given her. Which she had thanked her lucky stars for even though the world apparently had it out for her that day.

 

“After that my next errand was getting samples of coffee from literally every coffee shop in the city. Every single coffee shop. Miss Grant had an exact number and would check that I had every one of them. I got halfway through the list carrying around so many cups of coffee back and forth to CatCo before I dropped one on accident. And in trying to grab that one I dropped, I spilled all of the others on me. By that point it was five o’clock and I just went back to CatCo and hoped that Miss Grant wouldn’t have my head for not even getting half the list done. I walked in to tell Miss Grant what had happened. She took one look at me and said ‘Kiera, what have you been doing all day you smell like coffee covered sewage and you look like you took a bath in it.’ And then she told me that she wanted literally nothing on the list that I’d spent all day on and that she wanted me to proof her piece.”

 

Kara didn’t anger easily, but that day was probably the closest she had been to strangling Cat. Barring the red-k incident anyway.

 

“You know, for a super assistant you sure have some rotten luck,” Andy said, looking at her computer screen before nodding. “Yup, all done. Want to hear about the time I got trapped in the models’ changing room while you look over this?” She handed her laptop to Kara.

 

She took the computer from Andy and focused on the screen. “Oh no, do I really want to know?” 

 

“Of course you do. Might as well since we’re trading embarrassing stories already, right?”

 

“Right.”

 

“No better way to get to know another person than to just put all the embarrassing stuff out there right off.” Andy laughed and swayed a bit in her seat. She was obviously sobering up, but was still definitely tipsy, Kara thought. “Ok, so, I was at a shoot following Miranda around like I was supposed to and Miranda had a habit of looking in on everything going on at a shoot, even the models getting changed. I have no idea why, maybe to catch an outfit she doesn’t want even before the shoot starts, who knows. Anyway, she walks through, the models all hurry up and change with her there and go out to the set and get ready with Miranda close behind yet again. I was the last one out of the room and the door slammed in my face because of the wind blowing. It had managed to get stuck too, which was just my luck. With everyone actually focused on the shoot there was no one around to hear me shouting to get out for almost an hour. Miranda was the one who found me and asked me what in the world I was doing and then walked off before I could tell her I was stuck.” Andy reached out for her water and took a sip. “I think Miranda knew exactly what was going on but wouldn’t actually admit it.” She sighed heavily. “That woman.”

 

Kara hummed in agreement. She knew that feeling way too well.

 

Her eyes scanned over the piece in front of her. “You mind me making corrections to the original document?”

 

“Go ahead, I trust you.”

 

Kara’s eyes flicked up to Andy’s to see that she was earnest. Wow. That was a lot of trust for someone that she’d just met. The surprise must have showed on her face because the next second Andy was speaking again.

 

“I told you about my burr story. You could ruin my reputation with some of these stories. I trust you. Also you defended me against your boss, well our boss. No one did that when I was working for Miranda. It’s nice, to not feel so alone in tough situations.”

 

“Well, I’ll definitely try to be worthy of that trust. I know writing is personal. And as for the Cat thing, you deserve not to feel alone, Andy.” She held Andy’s gaze for another second before setting to work.

 

She read through Andy’s piece once and then again. It was a good first draft, definitely, especially for the fact that Andy was drunk while writing it and was distracted the entire time. There were a few places though that didn’t quite work. She edited them out quickly and rewrote the lines rereading the paragraphs again to make sure her changes were actually better.

 

The entire time that she was working, Andy just sat quietly, watching her and drinking her water. Kara didn’t quite know what to make of that, so she just kept on editing. What she did know about this entire day was that even after the whole Miss Grant and Miranda debacle and carting around drunk Andy, it had been the most fun she’d had getting to know another person. They just clicked. It had taken months for her to get to this level with Miss Grant, and while she wouldn’t give that up for the world, well, there was something to be said about free and easy. 

 

And more importantly attainable. That’s what kept playing over and over in her head. Andy was attainable. Really, that’s what it came down to, wasn’t it? Whether she was willing to write off what she felt for Miss Grant for a chance at something more and real with someone else.

 

She shook her head. She should really wait and see a little more. After all they were just getting to know each other, right? But if they were compatible now, they would be later. What should really stop her?

 

Kara just needed to stop thinking for tonight. She was going to think herself in circles and she knew it. That was harder done than thought, but it was needed.

 

She finished editing Andy’s piece and handed the laptop back to her. “How’s that?”

 

Andy read it over quickly and smiled. “Yeah, that’s perfect. Those changes you made to the third paragraph make it feel like a brand new, better piece. Thanks Kara.” She looked down at the clock. “And before the wire too, though not by too much, forty-five minutes. Still, go us.” She opened the submission page for online articles and sent it off after a few clicks and then shut her laptop. “Ugh, it will probably be twelve thirty by the time I get home, tomorrow’s going to be rough. Being low man on the totem pole sort of sucks sometimes.”

 

Andy stood up and stretched and Kara couldn’t help but watch. She did look very good, even in the ridiculous Pride outfit she’d worn. 

 

“If you continue to write like that you’ll move up quickly enough.” Kara smiled gently at her.

 

Andy snorted. “After earlier today, probably not. It’s a miracle Cat didn’t actually fire me on the spot. She definitely had cause. She must have a soft spot a mile wide for you to actually listen to you. And after Miranda gets her claws into Cat about me being hired, I doubt I’ll be here much longer.” She sighed, and her voice slowly became a whisper as she continued and by the end Kara had strain to hear even with super-hearing. “Well. I got this article done, so I can’t be called a slacker. At least I won’t disappoint another high profile boss.”

 

Kara stood up too and took a step forward. In the small cubicle that put her right in front of Andy, only about a foot and half from her. She reached out and drew the other woman into a hug because a statement like that deserved a hug no matter what. She hugged Andy as fiercely as she could without hurting the other woman and she felt Andy return the favor.

 

“You aren’t a disappointment, Andy. You never could be,” Kara said, quietly enough that Andy could pretend she hadn’t heard it if she wanted.

 

Andy just nodded into her neck, holding on to Kara for a few more seconds before stepping back. “Thanks.” She turned and started to pack her stuff away. “If I’m going to get any sleep tonight, I better get going. Thankfully, all that water you made me drink seems to have done the job and sobered me up and kept the hangover at bay.”

 

“No problem, hangovers are the worst and no one deserves one.” Or at least that’s what Alex always said since she’d never actually had a hangover. “Do you need any help getting home?”

 

Andy shook her head. “Nah, I didn’t drive today, I took the metro. Though after living in New York I don’t even know that it deserves to be called that. Thank god I didn’t grow up in the city and actually learned how to drive or I’d be kinda screwed here.”

 

“Ok, well, text me when you get home?” Kara would worry a little bit until Andy did. It was just who she was. At least if something did go wrong she could always swoop in and save the day.

 

“Sure.” She closed her bag and slung it on. “Thanks for today Kara. It really was fun.”

 

Kara smiled at the other woman. “Yeah, it was. I’ll walk you to the elevator then.”

 

Andy held out her arm. “Sounds like a plan.”

 

____________________

 

The next morning even Kara had a bit of trouble getting out of bed even with the sun’s help. She actually smashed her alarm clock in an attempt to hit the snooze button, which then had her actually out of bed and staring at the pieces on her floor. Really, someone should invent a studier alarm clock. Maybe she could get Alex on that. She was a biochemist, but that was beside the point.

 

Kara groaned and got ready for the day slowly, straying near her windows to absorb what she could of the sun’s light. On days like today she wished that caffeine actually affected her because a triple shot latte sounded great. She could only imagine how Andy felt, especially after spending most of the day drunk.

 

Kara bit her lip at that. Well, she couldn’t benefit from a triple shot latte, but Andy could, and she was already going to Noonan’s anyway. She might as well buy Andy a coffee too. She debated the choice as she finished braiding her hair back in a complicated crown braid that hopefully would distract from how tired she was. If she went down this road, continuing the friendship that they had started to build last night so soon after yesterday, with the tension between them it might really blossom into something more.

 

Attainable. It echoed in her head. She may never have the easy, warm certainty that she felt with Miss Grant, but she could have the arcing electricity that coursed between her and Andy. Who knew, it could develop into the warm feeling she felt for Cat after the flames banked a bit.

 

But she was making choices all off of a couple minutes of making out and a night of conversation. There were two years of building things between her and Miss Grant. She couldn’t know at this point if going off with Andy would work out. She was more certain that if she waited for Cat they would have a shot. It was almost irresponsible to make a rash choice like this.

 

She stared at herself in the mirror. Kara knew she was tired, knew that on some level this wasn’t when she should be making choices. But Rao, she never, ever made impulsive choices and she was tired of holding herself back.

 

So she grabbed her things and walked out of her apartment and to Noonan’s and bought two lattes, Cat’s usual and one with three shots on her way into the office. This would work out how it was supposed to somehow. A cup of coffee wouldn’t change that.

 

When she got into the office most people weren’t there yet, but people were starting to trickle in at an accelerated rate. She looked at her phone to see Cat wasn’t scheduled to arrive for another twenty minutes, which most likely gave her ten actual minutes before Cat actually got there. It was enough time to go to the Trib floor and drop off the coffee with Andy. Hopefully she was there to actually get the cup of coffee.

 

Kara set down Miss Grant’s coffee on her desk after giving it a quick shot of heat vision to make sure that it was still scalding hot just the way Miss Grant liked it when she got there if Kara was a few seconds behind her. She always kept an ear out for the other woman, but Cat had a way of sneaking up on even her sometimes.

 

She then quickly made her way down two floors and over to Andy’s cubicle. Andy’s stuff was there, but Andy herself wasn’t. Kara looked around for a few seconds, not finding her. She slipped her glasses down and looked around with her x-ray vision. She found Andy a second later in the editor-in-chief of the Trib’s office. She thought of listening in, but decided against it. From what she saw it looked like the meeting was almost over anyway.

 

Kara debated for a second before sitting in Andy’s chair to wait. She wasn’t waiting long before Andy turned the corner and stopped upon seeing Kara sitting in her chair.

 

“Oh hey,” Andy said, smiling slowly. “I figured you would sleep in a bit longer after last night.”

 

Kara shrugged. “I’m usually a morning person, though I will admit that this morning was still a little hard to pull myself from bed.” She scooped up the coffee from Andy’s desk and held it out. “I picked this up for you while I was out getting Miss Grant’s coffee order. It’s a triple shot latte. I figured after how late we left you might need it.”

 

Andy practically snatched it from Kara’s hand. “Oh you are literally the best person I think I’ve ever met, ever. I slept so late I didn’t have time to pick up anything on my way in since I had a meeting with Tom at eight fifteen.” She looked at the coffee cup. “Any sugar in this?”

 

“No, I figured you could add any later if you wanted it.”

 

Andy’s smile widened. “Perfect.” She took a long drag from the cup. “Thank god for caffeine.”

 

“It doesn’t really affect me, but it sounds like a nice thing.”

 

Andy’s face shifted into a horrified expression. “Caffeine doesn’t affect you? How in the world have you gotten through life, or at least college?”

 

“Morning person, remember?”

 

“Oh no. Oh god no.” She perched on her desk. “I would be dead on the side of the road somewhere without caffeine.”

 

“Well, I’m really glad you aren’t.” Kara looked down, playing with the bracelet she’d put on today to go with her flowy summer dress. She felt Andy’s gaze on her, appraising, trying to look through her like it was Andy who had x-ray vision and not herself, but she couldn’t make herself look up again.

 

“Yeah, me too,” Andy finally said softly. She reached out and squeezed Kara’s shoulder before taking another long sip of coffee. “Ugh, it’s like I can feel the life coming back into me right now even though my heart has been beating and I’ve been breathing without it. Honestly, while Miranda went a little overboard with the coffee demands, I kind of get it.”

 

Kara snorted. “At least you get it. I don’t, and I think Miss Grant is about as bad as Miranda, or so I’ve heard.” She perked up as she heard Miss Grant’s private elevator come to life. “But speaking of her, she should be here any minute so I should get going.” She stood from Andy’s chair, but hesitated for a second. “Um, see you later?” Kara fidgeted for a second, smoothing her skirt down and fixing her glasses.

 

“Definitely.” Andy gave her a huge grin over the lip of the coffee cup. “Thanks again for the coffee Kara. I appreciate it more than you know.”

 

Kara looked up again and smiled before hurrying towards the staircase. She was going to have to use a bit of superspeed to get to her floor before Miss Grant did. She listened hard in the stairway, but there was no one and second later she was striding towards Miss Grant’s elevator, latte in hand. She felt the temperature through the cup and it was still perfect. She sighed in relief.

 

Miss Grant came out of the elevator like her normal hurricane self. Words whipped out of her like wind and she strode forward like crashing waves, giving no quarter.  “Kiera, cancel my lunch meeting for today and move it to the next available spot. Then get me reservations at National City’s best steakhouse for one o’clock. I’ve already informed my driver that he’s to be here at twelve fifteen and I’ll be back no later than three. You know the drill for whatever falls in-between those times. I don’t have to hold your hand anymore.” She waved Kara off and strode towards her office.

 

Kara almost sighed in relief again, thinking she had reached the end of the storm for now, but Cat stopped in the doorway and looked Kara over for a second behind the sunglasses she’d yet to take off. Kara held her gaze for a few seconds, swallowing hard. She hadn’t reached the end of the storm at all, just the eye and the next wave was about to hit.

 

Cat took off her glasses and slipped them in her purse and Kara really felt the stare now. Kara knew that she had to do something to end this before she cracked and started to babble because who knew what would come out of her mouth.

 

“Is there anything else I can do for you Miss Grant?” Kara asked, her voice a bit shaky. 

 

“No, Kiera, but don’t think that I magically forgot about the events of yesterday. We will be talking about that but for now, chop chop on that restaurant reservation.”

 

And yes, she guessed that this was exactly what it was like to get hit by a piece of wind propelled shrapnel. Funny, how this was usually how she felt around Miss Grant. She shook her head and went to her desk. Just another day at CatCo then.

 

Lunch came quickly with all the rearranging that Kara had to do with Cat’s schedule. It’s not like the lunch meeting that she’d cancelled hadn’t taken three months to arrange or anything. Kara wanted to pull her hair out at that, but she managed to get it shifted around to a dinner meeting and prayed that Cat would actually keep it. She should probably confirm with Miss Grant that everything was kosher, but right now Kara had no real desire to poke that particular bear right now. Cat would be leaving soon anyway.

 

Kara sat up a little straighter. She could just email Cat the updated schedule. Email would be her savior once again. Some days she wanted to kiss whoever had invented it because assistants literally would never survive without it. She attached the revised schedule and sent it off, listening for the beep from Miss Grant’s computer that said she’d gotten the email. And there it was. Good, she was absolved of all responsibility now. Mostly. Sort of. 

 

She shook herself and started on her other work for the day. Nevermind all that. She had things to do.

 

Twenty minutes later Cat was strutting out of her office. “The schedule changes are acceptable. Though I have no idea why you wouldn’t actually just tell me instead of emailing me. Really, Kiera, it’s not like I can’t see right through you.” She glared at Kara and shook her head. “Seven tonight, Kara, my office.” And with that she swept out of the office in a gentle wash of orange blossom and lily perfume. 

 

Kara heard steps coming towards her and thought it was probably Winn returning to his desk in the wake of Miss Grant’s exit, but Andy’s voice came from the front of her. Her head snapped up to see the other woman looking at the private elevator Miss Grant had just disappeared into.

 

“Well, she looked both annoyed and happy. I have to admit that’s not an expression I’ve seen on anyone except Miranda. I thought it was a speciality of hers, but maybe it’s just a speciality of women in media.”

 

Kara snorted. “Yeah, maybe.” She put her head down on the desk. “It was bad. Whatever she was happy about it wasn’t anything to do with me, I can promise you that. Apparently emailing her the schedule isn’t something she likes. Despite the fact that I’ve done it before. I think she sensed I was avoiding her. She wants to talk later.” She groaned long and loud.

 

This time Andy snorted. “Miranda’s done that with me. Text me, no don’t, email me. No wait, call me. Never mind, never call me I can only call you, so text me. But I don’t want to think that you texting me might be my girls, so email me. It was a whirlwind of never knowing how I needed to contact her.” She walked around the desk and pulled Kara up off the desk. “That is rough about the talk later. If you want to you can call me afterward.”

 

Kara met Andy’s eyes. “I think I’d like that if Cat doesn’t completely tear out my innards with her verbal claws.” Her eyes widened a bit at the cat pun and she looked around to make sure that no one had heard that. She was as good as dead if anyone let slip that she’d said anything even nearing a pun.

 

Andy just laughed and shook her head. “Sounds good then. It’s a date.” She shifted from foot to foot for a second. “And speaking of dates, um, do you maybe want to go get lunch today. Like a date?”

 

Wow, she had known that things with them would go this way the second she had decided to buy that coffee, but she hadn’t thought it would happen this quickly. It should be panic inducing. She still wasn’t sure of everything, not really. And yet.

 

“I would love to,” Kara said, her shoulders starting to relax from the tense position they’d been in all morning and a real, bright, smile spreading over her face. “That would be really nice.”

 

Andy slumped forward a little, putting a bit more weight onto the hand on Kara’s shoulder. “Awesome. So awesome. Uh, do you wanna pick a place? The only places I know around here so far are either Starbucks or most fast food places.” Her expression was a bit sheepish. “Sort of a cop out to ask you on a date then not have a plan, but I figured it was better than taking you to McDonalds or something equally as mortifying.”

 

Kara laughed, her hand coming up to wrap around Andy’s. “I have just the place and it’s not super far from here. I go there a lot when Cat isn’t on the warpath and I have to scarf down food at my desk.” Not like she didn’t do that anyway as fast as her metabolism was, but that was beside the point.

 

“Perfect.”

 

“Just let me grab my stuff and we can go. Cat won’t be back until three so I don’t have to hurry back either.” She grabbed her wallet and company ID, looking over her workstation one last time to make sure she wasn’t forgetting anything before standing.  “Good to go.”

 

She stepped out from behind her desk and Andy followed her. Together they walked out of the CatCo building and into the National City sun and Kara sighed, feeling a little spike in her powers as always. She felt Andy watching her again as they strolled down the sidewalk. It was perfect weather out, not too hot or cold. There was something to be said about living in a desert by the ocean. 

 

“It’s beautiful here,” Andy said.

 

“It really is. I mean sometimes it gets way too hot during the summer, but since it’s a dry heat it could be a lot worse. And we have good air conditioning, so just stay indoors.”

 

Andy groaned. “God, humidity is literally the worst. The worst. There were some summers in Cincinnati where it was almost a hundred degrees with like a hundred percent humidity and I’m pretty sure that everyone in town was melting. And it stayed like that for weeks in August. The dog days of summer definitely.”

 

That sounded terrible, well terrible if she could actually feel the heat like a human, anyway. “Ugh, that must have been the worst.”

 

“So much. My family knows I really like snow so they were really surprised when I told them I’d be moving out here. Trading out snow for no humidity, though, pretty fair trade off. I’ll miss the snow, but have a celebration when I don’t have to deal with humidity.”

 

Kara remembered her first winter here, playing in the snow with Alex, mystified at the fluffy substance even though consciously she knew it was just frozen water. She had loved it. She still flew to the mountains sometimes to make a couple snow angels and slide down a slope or two to blow off some steam. It was such a strangely calming phenomenon.

 

“At least you can still drive to the mountains if you want a snow day. It’s only a couple hours away.”

 

Andy looked thoughtful. “Yeah, I might do that. Though no skiing. I’m way too accident prone for that, even though I enjoyed it the few times I tried..”

 

Kara made a sympathetic noise as they drew even with the restaurant she had in mind. “Here’s the restaurant. If you don’t like Greek food there are some other places we can go, but this place has gyros like the size of your face and they’re not ridiculously overpriced.” She bounced on her toes a little as her stomach growled. She was starving. 

 

“I love gyros.” 

 

Kara smiled wide and took Andy’s hand without hesitation and drug her into the restaurant. The old man behind the counter called out a greeting and Kara waved happily. It smelled wonderful inside as always.

 

“Your usual,  αγαπητός?” The old man said.

 

“Yes, that would be great.” Kara turned to Andy. “I usually get the lamb, but literally everything here is good.” She knew, because one day after a rough fight she’d ordered pretty much everything, pretending it was a to-go order for the office. It had been one of her better decisions. 

 

Andy looked up at the menu for a minute before ordering for herself while Kara snagged them a corner table by the window. A few seconds later Andy came to sit beside her, sighing.

 

“Come here often, then?” Andy laughed. “He called you dear.”

 

“Oh, so that’s what that means? I tried to google it but didn’t get much of anywhere.”

 

Andy nodded. “Yup, a couple of my more extended family were first generation Americans and their parents were from Greece so they spoke Greek. I picked up a few words here and there at family gatherings.”

 

“That’s awesome.” 

 

“Yeah, I wish I knew more but.” She shrugged. “I’m working on learning Spanish because it’s definitely useful, but I’m probably only at a second grade level, maybe. I’ll get there. Language is my thing.”

 

“I’m sure you will. New languages are hard to learn, but worth it.” In her case she had to learn English or be completely unable to communicate, but learning French in college had been her own choice and she still kept up with it in her spare time.

 

Andy nodded and smiled. “Yeah, definitely.”

 

The old man called out that their orders were up and Kara got up and juggled everything back to their table. She set down Andy’s food in front of her before sitting in her seat and digging into her platter with gusto. The old man made double portions for her now that he’d seen her eat two servings easily and she was grateful, especially today.

 

“Wow, you can put away food and still look like that.” Andy laughed. “Everyone at Runway would want your head.” She popped a french fry into her mouth and chewed slowly, like she was considering something.

 

“I just have a really fast metabolism. I’ve always had to eat a lot to keep myself at a healthy weight.” Kara shrugged, trying to play it off like it was nothing and hopefully succeeding. That wasn’t really the most abnormal thing about her, but she wasn’t about to let on about that anytime soon.

 

“There were so many models and employees that needed to go to rehab for eating disorders, including Miranda’s first assistant, the one actually named Emily. I mean I lost weight while I was there too, but I did it the actual healthy way. I started eating more greens and lean meats, and exercising more and lost sixteen pounds, but I was still eating fifteen-hundred to twenty-five hundred calories.” Andy shook her head. “It’s kinda sad. Not even just sad, but horrifying, that an industry is built on women starving themselves.”

 

Kara looked down at her food. “Yeah, it is.” She chewed thoughtfully for a minute, appreciating the taste of tzatziki sauce and lamb. “Did you ever question Miranda on the issue?”

 

Andy snorted. “Like hell, no one asked Miranda anything. I nearly had my head sawed off with a laser glare when I tried to bring up which skirts she wanted. But I got the feeling that she didn’t like the standards set, she just didn’t want rock the boat by trying to fight against them. She fought against sample sizes being downsized from fours and sixes to twos and fours and she had a few photoshoots with ‘normal’ sized women, but that’s never enough, you know?” 

 

She pushed the fries around on her plate and frowned for a long moment before going on. “It would take a complete overhaul of the industry, and while Miranda’s at the head of it, I’m not sure even she could make that kind of change and I think she knows it and so she just...doesn’t even try. She struggles with enough assholes like Irving Ravitz and other competitors that she would need more than just to start the ball rolling. She would need the entire empire to fall in line at a rate which even she wouldn’t be able to create. They all want her head on a platter anyway and that would be the fastest way to do it.”

 

“Really? There aren’t others who would follow her lead?” Kara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. People would follow Cat. Or well, Cat would  _ make _ people follow her. It was what she was best at.

 

“Oh, there are some, but not enough to make a big enough wave for it to make a change in the industry. It would be career suicide for all intents and purposes, and knowing the few who the board want to replace her with, the industry would tank, and the sizes would shrink even more, if that’s even possible. What many people in the industry who do want change forget is that Miranda is not her own boss. She may have a lot of stock and a lot of say, but she is not on the Board. She is under the thumb of Elias-Clarke, and eventually she won’t be able to stop them from overpowering her.”

 

“Wow, what a catch-22.” She finished off her first gyro and sighed. Now that she had some food in her she felt a little more human, well, not human, but Kryptonian. Idioms were the worst sometimes.

 

“Yeah.”

 

They ate in silence for a little while. It wasn’t uncomfortable, in fact it was quite the opposite there, sitting in the sunlight, warm and close to each other. Kara smiled over at Andy through a mouthful of fries and Andy smiled back and while there was worry, there was also peace in the moment. She knew it wouldn’t last. Nothing like this ever did, especially in the life of a superhero, but she enjoyed it while it was there.

 

When they pushed their plates away Kara felt the shift between them. She felt the weight on her shoulders, but it wasn’t heavy, just necessary, like the weight of a pack while backpacking. 

 

“So, um,” Andy stopped and started for a second. “We’re going to do this, obviously, but I think we do still need to talk about a few things before we get going, starting with the fact that we’re both in love with other women.”

 

“Yeah, yeah we should.” Kara sighed. There was enough time left before Cat came back that this talk could be had with time to spare hopefully. Here in the sun time seemed almost to stand still. “I mean, since we’re both in love with another woman at least it’s even. It’s not like it’s only one of us. And do you think that you’ll ever get to be with Miranda?”

 

Andy shook her head. “No. I don’t. I haven’t really ever considered it honestly because it’s just ridiculous. You don’t think you’ll ever have a chance with Cat?”

 

“No, she’s so far out of my league. She’s Cat Grant and I’m just Kara Danvers. There’s nothing special about me, I just am. And people who just are don’t get to be with women like Cat.”

 

Andy’s look turned wistful. “I know what you mean.” She ran a hand through her hair and looked up at Kara. 

 

In the sunlight Andy’s eyes were brown and gold and bronze and a thousand other colors. She felt her heart skip a beat. Oh.  _ Oh _ . Well, perhaps she had made the right choice after all. Maybe it was really going to be something to rival what she had with Cat. Maybe she wasn’t just repeating such platitudes to herself to make her feel better about the choice she almost had to make.

 

“It’s possible to love more than one person equally, if in different ways,” Kara said quietly.

 

“Yeah, it is.” Andy’s eyes were clear, her gaze steady. Everything about her screamed that she honestly believed what she was saying. “And I think we can get there and I think we’d be good together if we just try.”

 

Kara nodded, the warmth within her was no longer just that of her powers and the stored up energy of the sun, but a combination of that and something else, something much gentler. “I think so too.”

 

“We just have to understand that the second we don’t care for each other anymore, this ends. And if we can’t still be friends, if it ends, we have to respect that and be professional.”

 

Kara could make that promise easily. She had seen what it was like when people didn’t care for each other anymore and she wanted no part of it. “I agree.”

 

Andy smiled, but this time it was muted, small, but hopeful. “Good. Then I don’t see why any of our other feelings would interfere so long as we’re open and honest.”

 

Kara hesitantly reached out over the table and placed her hand on top of Andy’s. Her heart raced a bit at the contact, like they hadn’t been pressed up against each other the day before, making out like horny teenagers. It was new and it was exciting and that was ok. 

 

Andy turned her hand over and held onto Kara’s for a few long moments. Kara felt herself grinning, felt herself blushing, but didn’t do anything to stop it. This was nice, this was good.

 

Andy sighed and looked out at the street. “As much as I don’t want to right now, I think we have to go back to work. My boss is going to be wondering just where I am.”

 

“Oh, um, yeah, probably a good idea.” Kara stood up quickly and got rid of all their trash. She waved goodbye to the old man and met Andy at the door. Together they walked out into the National City sunshine and this time it was Andy who reached out and took Kara’s hand as they strolled back to work. She squeezed the other woman’s hand gently in acknowledgement and if she was mentally squealing just a little bit, well no one had to know.

 

When they reached CatCo Kara almost panicked at seeing one of the town cars that Cat took around town stopped in front of the building. Oh Rao. She was going to be in so much trouble if Cat was already up there and she wasn’t.

 

But then Cat was stepping out of the car with Miranda sliding out behind her. Kara blinked at that. When Cat had cancelled her lunch meeting she hadn’t said anything about another business meeting that took precedence. Which probably meant that it was personal lunch. But why was Cat having a personal lunch with Miranda?

 

Then Cat laughed, an honest to god, real laugh. Kara almost took a step backward, but froze instead. Andy looked at her questioningly before following Kara’s line of sight and freezing too. Cat and Miranda were smiling at each other and standing much closer together than Cat ever allowed anyone else to. Kara’s stomach was starting to churn because her brain was making connections that she very much did not want to make.

 

Andy turned back towards her. “I’m not hallucinating right? Miranda is laughing, honest to god laughing like she’s actually enjoying Cat’s presence. Like laughing like she does when she’s on the phone with her twins, laughing.”

 

“You’re not hallucinating. Or at least if you are, I am too.” Kara’s gaze was still locked on the two older women.

 

“Ok. Alright then. Um.”

 

Then Cat and Miranda stepped towards each other and bussed each other’s cheeks, but even from down the block Kara could tell that Cat was actually kissing Miranda’s cheeks. She never actually did that. Ever. She was way too germophobic to do that with anyone. Of course she kissed Carter, but that was her son.

 

Beside her Andy gasped. “She never--but, uh. Does Cat usually?”

 

“No, she doesn’t.”

 

Cat and Miranda broke apart almost reluctantly, stretching their light contact on long after the point where two people who were just friends normally would have. There was more and more evidence mounting towards the conclusion that her brain had come to earlier in just a few seconds. But denial was more than a river, and she was in it.

 

Cat squeezed Miranda’s forearms before stepping back. Kara couldn’t help but engage her super hearing to listen to what they were saying.

 

“Tomorrow then, but you will call me after you’re done with your gala?” Cat asked, voice still sure, but also deferential. It wasn’t an order, it was an actual question.

 

“Of course. I’ll let you know if I can’t for any reason. If not, there is texting, though it is a poor substitute.”

 

“Tonight then.” And with one last smile Cat turned and walked into CatCo.

 

Andy turned back to Kara again. “I wonder what in the world they were saying. It looked almost...intimate.”

 

The words slipped out before she could catch them. “They were making plans for tomorrow and discussing a phone call for later tonight.” She bit her tongue. If she didn’t stop with these little slips Andy was going to get suspicious too. That excuse of very good hearing was only going to hold out for so long.

 

“Oh.” Andy looked down for a second before looking back up at Kara, a bit of panic and pain in her eyes. “Do you think they’re seeing each other?”

 

She didn’t want the words to pass her lips, but yet they had to. She grimaced and fought back a sudden onslaught of tears. “I think that’s the only explanation for what just happened.”

 

“I think so, too.” Andy’s words were painful and quiet.

 

And despite the fact that she had known that this would happen-Cat finding someone to be with-despite the fact that she was on the verge of something new herself she felt her heart breaking then and there on the sidewalk outside of CatCo. Oh, she wished that she didn’t know what this felt like, but now she did, well and truly.

 

Andy sniffled and coughed. “Wow. Um. I--this--”

 

“It hurts,” Kara murmured.

 

Andy nodded before turning around, and Kara could hear her swallowing, and her heart speeding up. “Is there. Is there a way to get inside without going past them?”

 

Kara shook her head. “There is, but our IDs wouldn’t give us access to the back alley entrance, and it’s on the other side of the building anyway.”

 

“Well then.” Andy straightened up and blinked a few times until her eyes were clear. “Let’s get back to work then, shall we?”

 

“Yeah. Let’s.”

 

They walked back into CatCo as Miranda slipped back inside the car and drove off and Cat stepped onto her elevator heels clicking on tile. Kara would be behind Miss Grant coming in, but she wasn’t leaving Andy to rush up the stairs. She could handle Miss Grant. She could handle this too, this heartbreak. It wasn’t any worse than watching her home world blow up. Nothing would ever be worse than that.

  
And so she walked forward.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cat and Miranda have a lovely dinner at the the townhouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at what we have! Chapter four just for you guys!  
> We hope you enjoy it! We certainly enjoyed writing it!  
> Chapter 5 is in the final stages, so we're hoping that this slow and steady update pace is kept!  
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> Lots of Love,  
> CBC and Inkheart9459

Cat smoothed her hands down the front of her dress, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves before stepping from her restroom. Miranda was calmly seated on the sofa, a glass of wine in her hand. “Thank you. For agreeing to dinner.”

“Heaven and earth I suppose.” Miranda gave a little ironic smile.

Cat just rolled her eyes. “A few hours ago you were railing against that and now you're using it as an inside joke.”

“We may be old and stubborn, Cat, but when a point is argued logically we accept the argument, as we should.” Miranda took a sip from her glass. “Life is too short to fight losing battles. I am still bitter, but I can put that aside to,” she paused for a moment considering, “start fresh, as they say. We both deserve that kindness from each other, even though it took so many years.”

Cat hummed and walked over to her own glass of wine, taking a sip before fluttering about the kitchen, pulling ingredients from cabinets. It had been years since she'd made this dish, but she still knew the recipe by heart. If it could even be called a recipe as loose as it was. It was everything that someone on a tight budget would have and honestly could be altered a thousand ways to fit if something was missing. She had stopped making it when she had made it. There had been no need for budgets so why make a dish that was made for them. And yet here they were revisiting, but not dwelling on the past.

“You’re welcome to join me in the kitchen, or we can shout to each other from across the room, if you prefer,” she said, a small smile on her face when Miranda huffed. “I know how much you enjoy yelling,” she added, her smile growing at the glare Miranda shot her as the other woman stood from the couch.

“I do believe shouting is your forte, my dear.” Miranda regally slid onto one of the kitchen bar stools, and set her wine glass onto the counter before her. “I don’t understand how you still have a voice left at the end of the day.”

“Oh please, I have lungs of steel, and years of practice. It’s all about using the diaphragm to project. Didn’t you ever learn that in those public speaking classes you took.” Cat smirked. “And perhaps resilient vocal chords help.”

Miranda snorted. “Resilient vocal chords is a good lot of it. You weren’t even hoarse after a day and a night worth of screaming.” 

Cat saw Miranda shiver and knew exactly what she was thinking about. It hadn’t taken them long to fall into bed together, and when they had it had been explosive. They had held themselves back just enough that once started, they hadn’t stopped until the sun rose the next morning. Cat didn’t think she’d come that hard or that many times since. 

“That, that was mostly Motrin for the sore throat I had from all the screaming and a cup of tea before you woke up. Resilient vocal chords or not, that tested my limits.”

A pleased look flashed across Miranda’s face and she hummed.

“Don’t let it get to your head. I still remember you getting up from bed and falling right back down several times. I think it was that thing I did with my tongue, don’t you?” And twenty-six years later she could still remember the taste of Miranda on her tongue. Perhaps it was more than good that they were trying this again. She didn’t believe in true love, that was for millennials, but a love like that, remembered for decades, well, she wasn’t a stupid woman.

“Well, you still owe me a new set of sheets. Adding that fourth finger you were screaming for had some rather interesting effects.”

Cat shook her head. They could go like this for hours. They had before, barbs that for anyone else would be relationship ending were just teasing for them. She had to admit, it probably was odd, but they were who they were.

And because she was Cat Grant she couldn’t quite help but wonder just how many sheet sets Kara would owe her if they ever slept together. Supergirl, out of control in ecstasy, she was willing to bet it was a fairly high number. The thought made her mouth water.

“Where did you just go?” Miranda asked once Cat blinked the thought away.

Cat looked away, debating, but honestly, Miranda already knew about her pathetic crush on her much younger employee, so what really was the harm. After all, she knew about Andy and Miranda, so there was blackmail if she needed it.

“I was imaging Kara ripping through quite a few more sheet sets than we managed to back in the day.”

“Mmm, well she did have a nice pair of arms, good muscle tone. Though why she would hide it under those ridiculous clothes is beyond me.”

Cat laughed, well and truly laughed. “I’ve been asking myself the same thing for two years now and I still don’t have an answer other than something to do with midwestern sensibilities.”

“It must be then. Andrea was much the same when she first came to work with me. Quite honestly it was one of the reasons I hired her. A fashionless girl working at a fashion magazine, the irony was too good to pass up. And if her little speech about being a hardworker and storming back into my office after having been dismissed had anything to do with it, well.” Miranda waved that off. 

Cat, decided, for once, to let that point lie. Miranda knew why she really hired the girl, same as she knew why she hired Kara. They had been surprised in a world that had grown tediously boring in its predictability. Had they really stood a chance against women like that to begin with? Well, yes, she stood a chance against anything she set her mind to, but she hadn’t wanted to, and that was the real point she supposed.

Silence settled between them as Cat worked on finishing dinner, and Miranda watched with rapt attention. It reminded Cat of all those years ago, coming home, and simply spending quiet time together had been something they both had enjoyed. It was comforting to know it was still possible despite the anguish between them. To feel like Miranda could become part of her home, her family.

Looking up from her work she smiled. “How peculiar is it that I happened to have two boys and you had two girls.”

Miranda cocked an eyebrow. “And how exactly did you get there from fashion disaster assistants?”

Cat shrugged. “Cooking dinner at home, I suppose, feels a bit like family. When we would come home and flip a coin over who had to cook, but we’d always end up working together to make the food just as we did to clean up. It doesn’t take much to get from there to children.”

“I suppose not.” Miranda took a sip of wine. “You, however, didn’t have twins. I don’t recommend it. I wouldn’t give up the girls for the world, but my god would it have been easier to take care of one baby instead of two. I was a mess until they slept all the way through the night and even then for a few weeks after.”

“Twins as a first parenting experience would be...interesting to put it mildly. I’m sure you did a marvelous job. Adam was a rather easy baby, but Carter was not, so that was a challenge.” 

Miranda looked far away for a moment. “They have turned out to be exceptional young women, but they still have a ways to go. They’re only a year older than Carter, thirteen. Teenagers. My god. But…” She trailed off.

Cat knew what she was saying without the words. They had the same doubts about if they were truly doing everything they could to be fit mothers. She rounded the island and set a hand on Miranda’s shoulder, thumb rubbing lightly at the tense muscles there.

“Do I need to take you through that same talk you took me through a few hours ago?” There was dry wit in there, yes, but also softness in her voice. She would do whatever Miranda needed.

Miranda took a deep breath and then another. “No, no, I suppose not. That is what therapy is for and with what I pay the woman, she might as well earn her keep. But thank you, dear.”

Cat laughed, and hesitated only a moment before deciding to press a kiss to Miranda’s temple. She returned to the other side of the island and spoke in hopes of distracting Miranda from heavier things, and perhaps herself as well. “Carter was a difficult pregnancy, as well as a troublesome birth. Goodness I hope to never experience anything like that morning sickness ever again. When it was finally time, he was late, it seems from the beginning he wanted to stay close to me, and they had to induce labor. He was breech, and the doctor told me that in most cases the baby flips around on their own but Carter decided he wanted to be difficult. They had me in for a C-section before anything happened to either of us, obviously, but the sound of the distress alarms first going off.”

She shook her head and had to take a breath and hold it. To lose her second child before he was even born, it was her worst nightmare. It was, and would always be, her scariest moment. Nothing else even came close.

“Terrifying,” Miranda finished for her easily and Cat got the impression that something along the same lines had happened to her as well with the twins.

“Yes, very.” And that was all she could say about it, master of words that she was. “But then I heard him cry right after they cleaned his nose and mouth and everything was fine. He kept crying until they put him in my arms and then he quieted as if nothing was ever wrong. It was a rather magical moment.”

“I was in a snit about a sorry excuse of a nurse while having a moment’s respite before having to push Caroline out, when they finally were able to hand me Cassidy for just a moment. I was so happy to hold my darling girl that I nearly forgot about the nurse stepping on the cords and causing the distress machine to malfunction. Nearly. She still got a dressing down from the head nurse by my say so and it was satisfying, even if at that point in the hospital stay I was so tired I was almost delirious.”

“You didn’t get her fired?” Cat asked, incredulous.

“Didn’t have quite enough pull then to accomplish it. I had only taken the editor-in-chief position two years before and didn’t quite have enough money or power to bend the hospital board to my will. She did, however, manage to get sent off to a small hospital in upstate Maine a few years afterward.” Miranda’s smile was completely draconian.

“Which of course had nothing to do with you.”

“Of course, dear.”

Cat went back to making dinner once more, throwing everything in the pan and watching it sizzle all together. Really, it was like a paella and a hash all shoved together into some divine mess, this dish. Rice and eggs and whatever vegetables were on hand, frozen or canned actually worked better than fresh, and a few basic spices that any kitchen would have, salt, pepper, cayenne or maybe soy sauce if it was fancy, maybe meat if there was any to be had, and whatever broth was on hand. Depending on what was in it, it could range from good to wonderful. Cat, with her pantry full of everything that she could ever want, was aiming for wonderful this time around of course.

“Do you remember that ratty little cookbook you got this recipe from?” Miranda asked, sliding from her stool to grab the wine bottle and refill her glass. Only the first hint of a blush was on her cheeks so Cat was well aware she was a long way off from drunk. She didn’t think she’d see Miranda drunk again, not after Stephen. She was a media mogul and had the information that not even other editors would publish for fear of retribution from Miranda, and none of it had been good.

“Oh, god, yes, it practically fell apart the first time I opened it at the second hand bookshop. ‘Cooking for the Cash Conscious,’” Cat said and rolled her eyes. “Everything in there required way too much butter, but this.”

“It was the fifties when it was published. They didn’t know that lead in gasoline was slowly killing them nor what cholesterol even was.”

“Don’t forget cigarettes causing cancer,” Cat agreed. “But still, my god.” Her stomach growled at a good whiff of what she was making hit her square in the face. “The seventy five cents we paid for the thing was well worth it though just for this recipe.”

“Once you started playing with it, yes. How many days in a row did we eat this without eating the exact same thing?”

“Two weeks at least, maybe three.” Neither of them had had the money to buy anything more than what was already in the cabinets, but they had made it just fine if only for this recipe. “Better yet, do you remember that first meal out after everything had been paid off and we had some extra money?”

Miranda groaned. “My god, that one step up from fast food burger tasted better than anything from a five star kitchen.”

Cat smiled and gave the food a last stir before turning. They had about five minutes to go before it was ready. “My god, and the french fries.”

“You nicked some of mine.” Miranda glared, mirth in her eyes.

“Can you blame me?” 

“No, not on that day. Besides, I got more of the chocolate shake when you were distracted by that terrible headline on the Times.”

“Don’t ever remind me. I keep that in the bullpen as a reminder of what not to do when you get a front page story.” She shivered delicately. “How in the world did someone get that past editing?”

“Hmmm, the author of the article was sleeping with the editor’s daughter. I never did find out if it was nepotism or the editor wanting to destroy the author’s reputation.”

“God only hopes that it was the second one because the first is pure idiocy.”

“Yes, well,” Miranda said simply.

Cat snorted at that. “You have a point.” Because everything that needed to be said had been said in two words. Yes, well, people are idiots ninety-nine percent of the time. Yes, well, even if the editor was smart enough not to play favorites it was still an entirely stupid way to go about things. Yes, well, whatever the intention the man had been eaten alive by the press at large so he wasn’t a problem anymore thank god.

“I always do.”

Cat just rolled her eyes before grabbing two plates and the pan full of their dinner and carrying everything over to the island. She slipped around and sat next to Miranda, sighing.

“Help yourself. It should be a step up from what we ate back then. God knows all the cooking lessons I paid for when Carter was young should have paid off somehow.”

“Picky eater?”

Cat nodded, groaning. “Like you wouldn’t believe. He grew out of it after a couple of years, but for a while there I thought his growth would be stunted because all he wanted to eat was bread, cheese, and a few tomato derivatives, pizza was of course popular.”

“Pizza is the favorite food group of anyone under twelve.” Miranda scooped a decent sized portion of food onto her plate. “They act like it’s Christmas morning every time they get it.”

“A fairly accurate description, really. But worrying when it’s the only thing your son will eat willingly. Those pediasure shakes were a lifesaver in all honesty. It saved some of the worry, at least. But with clever cooking lessons I managed to hide a good bit more in Carter’s pizza than just cheese, tomatoes and crust. I also learned some other more adult friendly cooking techniques, but why hire a kid friendly chef if you weren’t there predominately to get your child to eat more than the nutritional equivalent of paste.”

“Paste at least has the advantage that it’s not grease laden.” Miranda took a bite and moaned quietly. “You learned well. This is adequate.”

“Damning with faint praise again, are we?” Cat takes some food of her own and scoops up a bite. It’s one of her better creations, that lobster butter steak she had made a few years ago when she’d needed something complicated to take up her time on a Carter-free weekend still out ranked this, but she wasn’t disappointed nevertheless. 

“If I waxed poetic about the food you would know that something is wrong with me.”

“True enough.”

They lapsed into comfortable silence again, eating and drinking wine shoulder to shoulder, looking over the kitchen that was still a bit of a mess. It really did feel like home. Cat’s heart ached for a long second thinking about the fact that they could have had this for years and yet.

But if they had gotten together then Carter and the twins wouldn’t exist. And despite the fact that Cat wanted nothing more in the dark of the night than someone who loved her for who she was, not the idea of her, she wouldn’t ever give Carter up for that and she didn’t think Miranda would give up the girls either. What they had done was done now, and this moving forward was the only thing that could and should happen.

She was sounding like a therapy book, really, but she supposed she wasn’t wrong. Cat Grant hardly was wrong, after all.

“Tell me, your assistant, Kara, she looks slightly familiar. Do you know why that is? Has she been in any modeling campaigns? Small scale, perhaps? God knows she has the body for it.”

Cat stiffened just a bit at the question. Miranda couldn’t have figured out in less than a day what had taken her weeks to put together, could she? Then again, Miranda wasn’t one to talk around the issue. If she really knew that Kara was Supergirl then she would have asked that. CatCo had too close of a relationship with Supergirl for Miranda not to think that Cat would know such a fact. She would have expected Cat to find out even if it took some digging.

“Her eyes.” Miranda hummed. “Her eyes and her cheekbones. I am sure I’ve seen her somewhere in a magazine or two.” She rested her arm against the counter and took a sip of her wine, holding it in her mouth for a few moments longer than normal before swallowing.

Cat could see the wheels turning in Miranda’s head, could see the flickering of thousands of pages of magazines running through her mind, being examined for the likeness she was looking for. Miranda may not have it figured out yet, but she would figure it out in the next few minutes if Cat didn’t try to stop it. She didn’t want to lie to Miranda, but this was not her secret to tell. It was dangerous to know, she had figured that out not long after Kara brought in her body double. When she had calmed down from the deception it had been obvious. Cat was already associated with Supergirl, Miranda did not have to be.

“Oh!” Miranda gasped. “Has she even been in a few of the CatCo pages?”

Well, that was as good an opening as she ever hoped to get. “Oh, I’m sure she’s been on a few pages here and there. It’s a hazard of the job. Action shots of galas and all that.” She shrugged like it was no big deal. “Kara herself wouldn’t really model so that’s where you must have seen her.” It wasn’t actually a lie. Kara had been in the last photograph of a CatCo gala. She had also been the main focus of said gala, but that was saying too much. 

“You read CatCo closely enough to have everyone in it memorized?” Cat asked, trying to pull the conversation in a different direction. God knew of course Miranda read CatCo, everyone in the publishing industry did. It was a top ten magazine. You couldn’t miss it and expect to be up to date.

“Well, not memorized, not like Runway, at least, but I may know more than a passing observer would. It is part of my job to keep up to date on trends.” 

But there was just a hint of a blush on Miranda’s cheeks that let Cat know that it was a little more than that. Cat chose to let that lie for now though. There would be plenty of time for teasing later, if this thing between them persisted, but first it had to get that far. Poking the dragon was one way to ensure it didn’t, that hadn’t changed in all these years.

“Mm.” Cat took another bite of her dinner, thinking how best to continue the conversation without throwing them into left field and making Miranda suspicious about Kara’s identity.

“But no, what you’re suggesting isn’t quite right. She would look much like your mousy assistant in such pictures. I remember confidence and perhaps an edge in the pictures. Modeling would change her face enough for that to cover up the warm fuzzy personality she has enough for me not to recognize her on first sight.”

So Miranda wasn’t going to give this up easily. Well. She could do that. “Are you sure it just wasn’t someone else that looked a great deal like Kara? I can’t imagine Kara’s been in a magazine without my knowledge.”

Miranda leveled Cat with a glare that spoke volumes but Cat didn’t even flinch. “I can recognize thousands of different colors on sight. I never forget a face, a design, or a page of Runway. I think I am perfectly capable of remembering what and who I saw, Cat.”

Perhaps a strategic retreat was in order. It wasn’t losing, it was just saving the attack for when it would be actually useful. “I will speak with her and see if maybe she’s done some sidelining in magazines. I suppose there’s a chance I was unaware.” She managed the words, but still being who she was the tone wasn’t quite right for a concession. Well, she would take what she could get.

Miranda, for her part, seemed soothed. “Do that. It will bother me until something is figured out.” She shrugged it off like it didn’t really matter even though it did.

Cat debated for a second on what in the world she was going to do to get Kara out of the mess she had accidentally put her in. James could be called on surely to stage a more fashion-like shoot, but to actually get it into a magazine and to backlog other shoots in other magazines and make it so Miranda wouldn’t notice. She fought the urge to rub her head as the beginnings of a migraine started. What a hole to dig for herself.

“You’re getting a headache,” Miranda said from beside her, already moving to get up. “You carry Advil in your purse still?”

Cat blinked and blinked again. She had forgotten that Kara wasn’t the only one who had figured out that the corners of her eyes pinched more when her head was starting to hurt. Miranda had noticed within two weeks of being together. Her throat felt a little thick for a moment, full of a swirl of emotions so she just nodded at Miranda’s question.

The other woman hadn’t really needed the answer, she was already rooting around in Cat’s purse. It was big enough and disorganized enough that it took Miranda a minute to find the small bottle and shake out two pills before turning back to Cat and handing them to her.

“There, and perhaps water instead of wine to take those.”

Cat took them out of Miranda hands picked up the glass of wine and tossed back the pills easily. “I’ve taken them with alcohol before and I’m not dead.”

“No, but your stomach lining and liver probably do not thank you.” Miranda frowned but sat back down without any more comments.

Cat reached out on instinct and grabbed Miranda’s hand. She held in the shocked reaction. She hadn’t actually meant to do that, but yet it had happened. So she went with it and interlaced their fingers without hesitation.

“Thank you,” she said quietly. The ‘for caring,’ went unsaid but only just, the words echoed in the quiet room, the city sounds cut off by expensive soundproofing and the height of the building.

Miranda looked up at Cat with serious eyes, ice blue and piercing. “Of course, Cat.”

And if the two of them hadn’t realized that there was really no such thing as of course in the world by now, then they hadn’t been paying attention-- and oh god, did they pay attention. How lucky was she to have found two people like this, where of course was really meant and not just some societal nicety. Even if one only remained a friend instead of more, it was still amazing and more than she deserved. Yes, she had fought to do good in the world, but god it didn’t feel like it balanced out everything in her life she had done wrong, and yet how did this happen otherwise?

They sat quietly, hands joined together as they finished their dinner together. In all, it didn’t feel like a new beginning, it felt like a continuation. Cat wasn’t sure that it was healthy, but emotionally, it might be just what she needed. Her heart ached, but it felt like a healing energy was pulsing through her veins and she never wanted it to stop.

She took a quiet, deep breath, and squeezed gently at the hand in her own, bursting with a sense of contentment when Miranda squeezed back. Finishing her meal, she waited patiently for Miranda to eat her last few bites, absently running her thumb over the back of Miranda’s hand. “I usually prefer to clean up right away, god knows messes bother me, but I think in this one instance this one can be left to the maid.”

Miranda laughed. “I don’t remember messes bothering you when you left all the pans to ‘soak’ overnight.”

Cat jostled Miranda with her shoulder gently. “There was stuck on food that wouldn’t have come off otherwise.”

“Right. And yet somehow I had to remind you over and over the next day to do them and you would always frown at me.” Miranda ate her last bite of food and sighed contently.

“Yes, well, who really likes to do dishes, Miranda. You’re not the one with the mushy food problem, surely you understand that urge.”

“I do, but you just didn’t want to admit that soaking them overnight made the food even mushier so you were even more disgusted at the thought of washing them than I was.” Miranda smirked as she finished the last of her wine too.

“You’re never going to let me get away with anything, are you? You know too much.” A thought hit Cat and she groaned. 

“What?” Miranda asked, looking slightly concerned.

“Oh, nothing, just the thought that if you and Carter got together I would never have another peaceful day in my life. Between the two of you I think you know all of my secrets.”

“I would like to meet your son for more reasons than just to exchange secrets. He’s your son, Cat, and I would be honored to meet him because he is a part of you and I’m sure a wonderful young man in his own right.”

Cat looked down at her empty plate. “He really is a miracle. I would love for you to meet him at some point.” She looked back at Miranda. “And perhaps I could meet your girls someday as well?”

Miranda nodded slowly. “Yes, I think they would like that, as would I. But perhaps once this is on firmer footing? I’m already taking them through another divorce I don’t want to…” She took in a shuddering breath.

“I understand.” Cat squeezed Miranda’s hand again before getting up. “Would you like to see pictures?”

Miranda looked around the apartment which was decorated with a great many photos of Carter and herself, mostly professionally taken, and she cocked an eyebrow.

“These are the publicly appropriate photos. Sometimes I have guests over to the penthouse. I keep the good photos at the beach house and in my office here. No one needs to know anymore than they have to.”

“I understand, much more than anyone else, I suppose. The pictures of the girls on the first floor are all school photos and pictures of them at recitals and events of the like.” Miranda got up from her stool, still holding on to Cat. “But yes, I would like to see these photos. I have some treasured photos on my phone if you would like to see a few of my girls.”

Cat smiled and nodded, feeling the warmth swell in her chest just a bit more before she gently pulled Miranda down the hall. Their stocking feet made little sound on the plush carpet and Cat felt herself relaxing even more as she continued towards her private refuge in her home. She loved her study, it was why she had settled on this apartment over all the others, with windows overlooking the city and shelves built into the walls with light oak. The room had seemed limitless when it was empty, and Cat had only added a small amount of things to keep that feeling while still making the room comfortable. It was light and airy like her office while almost feeling like a room at her beach house. It was just what she needed in the middle of the city.

“You know, if CatCo hadn’t worked out you could have made a mint becoming an interior designer,” Miranda said, taking in the room slowly and smiling slightly.

“Yes, well, I’m glad that that eventuality didn’t pan out because I’m rather fond of what I do right now, thank you very much.”

She pulled them over to her favorite couch that practically had an indent in it with her name on it. She’d spent hours upon hours curled up on it, doing various things, from work to just looking out on the city, deep in thought. Cat motioned for Miranda to sit before she let go of the other woman’s hand to walk over to the shelves nearest her desk. With a thoughtful hum she pulled out a few of the photo albums carefully stored there.

Cat walked back over to the couch and sat down in her normal place, curling her feet under herself and leaning against the arm. Miranda scooted closer, side touching Cat’s as Cat opened the first scrapbook to pictures of Carter as a baby. Her heart clenched a bit seeing the first picture she’d taken of him, still red and squished, wrapped in the blue hospital blanket, less than a day old. It seemed like it had only been a few seconds ago some days. Seeing Carter on those days, over halfway to being grown threw her for a loop. She was so proud of him, but he was always going to be her little boy.

“This was right after I’d woken up a few hours after surgery. Everything hurt, but then the nurses went and got him and he was perfect and I took about a hundred pictures that day, but this will always be my favorite.”

Miranda pointed at one farther down the page, showing Cat holding Carter, looking down at him with a smile as Carter grabbed onto one of her fingers. “I think I like this one the most. You can see just how much you love him already.”

“I had been struggling to breastfeed because I was just too sore to really hold him against me for that long, but the nurse had been patient enough to help me move into every position we could think of to make it work. This photo, the nurse took it after I had successfully fed him and burped him for the first time. She helped me get comfortable sitting up again after being on my side, and Carter latched onto my finger with all his might. He looked right up at me and held on tight. I felt as if I was going burst. He wasn’t crying, or fussing, just holding on tight and looking at me, his eyes blinking slowly as he began to fall asleep.”

Cat flipped the page and time jumped forward a few days to Carter’s first day home. They hadn’t been in this penthouse yet. She’d been earning enough to afford a larger place for a few years at that point, but there was something about staying in the first nice apartment she’d bought for herself when CatCo had started to really succeed and she could afford some of the nicer things in life that appealed to her sentimental side. She’d started looking soon after she’d brought Carter home, though, because she wanted the best of the best for him. Still, though, she owned her old apartment too, unable to truly let it go, and now it was subleased to a nice elderly couple who’d come to National City for the weather.

She pointed to the fourth photo on the page, of her lying beside Carter on her bed, a tired smile on her face as she rubbed his stomach gently. “Eric had just stepped out to take a call after he’d fed Carter that first day home. He’d actually taken a week off to help out around the house, which was surprising, but business never really stops as you know. He took that picture when he finished up and walked back in the room, said we both looked like angels. I think that was the nicest thing he’d ever said about me.” She shook her head. “Don’t know what I was thinking with that marriage, but it did produce Carter.”

“You do look like angels. At least the man had some sort of sense, though not much if he let you go.”

Cat snorted. “Oh, trust me, not much sense was his normal working mode. Unless you were talking about international finance, anyway.”

Miranda reached out and traced the edges of a few pictures smiling. “He was so small.”

“He was for a long while. He finally started growing like a weed when he hit about seven and caught up with the rest of his peers. I kept fretting that I hadn’t followed the dietary plans correctly during my pregnancy, and had stunted his growth.That whole picky eater fiasco didn’t help, either. My physician, and his pediatrician told me many times that wasn’t the case, but I didn’t believe it until he grew nearly four inches in a little under a year and was in the worst growing pains. Then it was about three the next year and he’s added at least one to two since every year after that. The doctors say he’ll probably be around six foot when he’s done growing when he’s older, give or take an inch or two since it’s not an exact science.” She shook her head. “Height which he didn’t get from me obviously, but his father is around six two.”

“He’ll pass you soon, then,” Miranda said quietly.

Cat nodded, throat tight again. “Yes, another inch and he will be. I can’t put my chin on his head anymore.” She sighed. She missed being able to do that.

Miranda nodded. “Yes, the girls are tall enough now that I can’t do that either. Though, at thirteen, I’m not sure they would let me even if I could.” She shook her head.

“Teenagers,” Cat lamented.

“Teenagers,” Miranda agreed.

Cat flipped the page again to see Carter’s first month, then second, and third, his first solid food, first steps, first word, everything. They progressed slowly, Miranda taking as much time as Cat was, looking at every photo, Cat sharing as many stories as she could. Miranda leaned closer and closer as the evening wore on until her head was on Cat’s shoulder and there was a throw on their legs to ward off the chill in room. Cat was warm and happy and lost in a past she didn’t mind reliving with someone she wanted to share everything with. It was a wonderful way to spend an evening, better than the evening alone with a nice scotch she had had planned before this.

When they were done with her scrapbooks, Miranda pulled out her phone and opened the albums. Cat could see the camera roll was almost exclusively pictures of two red heads getting into some sort of trouble. She smiled as Miranda scrolled back and back until she hit the beginning and she clicked on the picture.

“I saved their first baby picture on here almost as soon as I got the phone,” Miranda said quietly. “Any time I get a new phone it’s one of the first things I do.” She cleared her throat. “I don’t have the photo of me holding them shortly after they were born because I worry about my phone getting stolen, and someone trying to use that photo against me somehow, but I love this photo just as much.”

Cat looked and saw two little girls nestled together in one baby cot, sleeping peacefully, their heads covered in little pink caps. She melted inside at the picture. Children were always so precious, especially babies.

“They’re beautiful,” she said simply.

“I thought so too.” She swiped to the next picture of the girls, a little older, and gripping onto Miranda’s suit pants with tiny hands. “They were both determined that they were going to learn to stand that day by any means necessary. The means necessary apparently were a firm grip on my pants, and crying if I tried to move in order to do my work. It was a good thing I had decided on a more functional belt that morning. Once they were both up they both just looked up at me and smiled widely, only their front teeth had come in at the time and it was adorable. Greg took a picture of the moment not long after.” She sniffled and blinked hard and Cat had a feeling Miranda was blinking back a few tears. “It didn’t take them long after that to figure out walking and then they turned into terrors trying to eat everything-- and I mean everything.” 

She laughed a little watery laugh. “My assistants think they’re bad now with their pranks but they don’t know what a hassle it was to keep them from dying before the age of two. I had to be very careful if I took off my heels in a room they were in, because they loved putting anything in their mouths. My shoes, as well as pens, clothes, paper, rocks, decorations in the house, everything. If they could get their hands on it, then they would put it in their mouths. If they couldn’t pick it up, then they would lick it. That included one of my assistant’s legs. She quit the next morning. I think if she wasn’t counting on me blackballing her, she would have screamed her resignation down the hall right then.”

Cat scoffed. “Why on earth would she quit over children being curious? I may not like germs but a little child spit can be cleaned quite easily. Honestly, if that’s all that it took for her to quit she would never survive my office. Though once I did have a man quit because I had him run to the drugstore to buy a box of tampons. Weaklings, the both of them.”

“Tampons, really, did he think because you were the head of a media empire that you didn’t menstruate?” Miranda snorted. “Men and their idiotic fear of periods.”

“No idea.” She threw her hands up gently, not jostling Miranda from her place on her shoulder.

Miranda just shook her head again and changed the picture again. In this one the twins were well and truly toddlers now, probably somewhere around three, and smeared with an ungodly amount of blue icing everywhere. Cat started laughing almost immediately. She was sure every parent had some iteration of the same picture somewhere, but this was on a new level, they looked like little slime monsters--covered in so much icing their eyes were barely visible.

“Do I even want to know?” she asked between laughs.

“The nanny looked away while making their birthday cake and they got hold of the icing through some sort of twin witchcraft since they weren’t tall enough to reach the top of the counter. By the time she realized it was gone they’d spirited away with it to their playroom and covered themselves in it because and I quote here ‘because fun mommy.’ Their hair ended up being tinted blue for a few months after that, the rugs in their playroom, were beyond saving however.”

“Makes me thankful that Carter’s icing fiasco only ruined his outfit for the day.”

“Quite.”

She changed the picture again and this was a picture of the twins first day of school. The backpacks on their backs were almost as big as they were, their tiny uniforms were already rumpled adorably, and their hair was falling out of their braids, but they were smiling like nothing in the world would bother them. Cat couldn’t resist the urge to reach out and touch the screen as if she could actually manage to feel the moment through hard plastic and electronics.

“They were so excited to go that day. They were up at five in the morning dashing all over the house asking me if it was time to go yet. It was a miracle I got them dressed they were squirming so much. It was a bit of a blessing, though, because I couldn’t exactly dwell on the fact that my babies were truly growing up when I was chasing after two rampaging monkeys.”

“Chaotic,” Cat said, “but I understand what you mean. Sending Carter off was hard because he didn’t want to go. He started crying, but I knew I had to leave him or he would never go to school. It broke my heart. I don’t think I got anything done that day.”

Miranda nuzzled a bit further into Cat. “I don’t think I did either.”

The next picture was of the twins somewhere in the middle of elementary. The both of them were in god awful orange carrot costumes and both of them were looking a bit annoyed about it.

“School play?” Cat asked.

“School play, they hated it, but it was required that year and someone had thought since they were redheads it would be a good idea to cast them as carrots. They didn’t agree. I didn’t either, but looking back I find it more than a little amusing. They did wonderfully anyway. The only thing that made them happy was that I took them to their favorite arcade afterwards, and played any game they wanted me to.” She shuddered. “I made sure that they understood I would only ever play Dance Dance Revolution in the privacy of our home after that. Someone sold photos to Page Six and they had a field day.”

Cats eyes widened. “You play DDR?”

Miranda looked at her warily. “And if I say yes?”

“You might be challenged to a dance off. I didn’t play that damn game with Carter for years to have my skills go wasted against a worthy challenger.”

Miranda laughed genuinely. “I suppose something can be arranged then, but what do I get when I win?”

“Aren’t bragging rights enough with the both of us?”

Miranda considered and nodded. “Fair enough, but how about another dinner as well.”

Cat thought for a moment before grinning wickedly. “I’ll do you one better.”

“Oh?” Miranda raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“Winner gets a kiss from the loser.”

“How is that a bet, really, we would both win.” Miranda sat up a little bit to look at Cat dead on.

“Oh, I know, that’s the point.” 

The air between them was starting to grow thicker, little sparks of electricity flying. Cat remembered this, this storm that always preceded a kiss between them and maybe more. She thought for a fleeting second that it might be too soon to kiss Miranda again, but first dates had kisses. They would be ok.

“I don’t think we need a children's’ game to determine this for us, do you?” Miranda inched closer.

“No, but it would give us plausible deniability. You know how powerful that is as well as I.” Cat licked her lips.

“I think in this one case plausible deniability can be left by the wayside.”

“I won’t tell the lawyers if you don’t, they’d be horrified.”

Miranda laughed and moved that last inch between them, kissing Cat gently and Cat sighed softly. This was what kisses had been missing for twenty-six years. Miranda just...she just was. There was no way to describe the force of nature she brought into a kiss, like an electrical storm causing havoc and a gentle healing rain all at once.

They pulled apart after a long minute, eyes opening slowly. They stared at each other for a long moment before Miranda pressed a second quick kiss to her cheek before she settled back on Cat’s shoulder and they picked up Miranda’s discarded phone.

“We’re still having a dance off to determine who pays for the next dinner,” Cat said as Miranda unlocked her phone.

Miranda snorted. “Incorrigible.”

“So are you.”

“Fair enough. I’m paying for lunch tomorrow. No arguing.”

Cat chuckled. “You are? When did we decide we were doing lunch?”

Miranda flicked to the next photo as she spoke, “Just now.”

Cat thought about it for a second. Tomorrow she had that lunch meeting that had taken Kara forever to arrange, but honestly, this was more important to her. Meetings could always be rearranged. This could not.

“I suppose I can fit you into my schedule.” Cat kissed the top of Miranda’s head.

“Suppose,” Miranda scoffed.

“Yes, I do run a multi-billion dollar company after all.” Her tone was teasing and she felt Miranda smile into her shoulder.

“Well then, I suppose I should be honored.”

“Damn right.”

Miranda rolled her eyes and the both of them focused back on the pictures on the screen by silent mutual agreement. Cat watched as the older pictures flew by and then were replaced by a thousand and one more recent ones of the girls. She smiled at every single one, knowing that while she wasn’t really getting to know the girls, it felt like she was in a way and she loved it.

When they stood from the couch a couple hours later Cat turned to Miranda with a smirk on her face. “And now it’s time for that dance off. I’ll be back in one second.”

Cat had to dig around for a minute to find the mats. It had been a while since she and Carter had played the game. He was much more into MMORPGs now and that was fine with her as long as he stayed away from first person shooter games. The world had enough violence in it that Carter didn’t need a video game to normalize it for him.

When she got back Miranda was standing right in front of the framed copy of the last CatCo cover. The one with Kara on it. As Supergirl. She had framed it because it had broken sales records for the last five years and if she liked to stare at Kara sometimes in the late night hours when work was getting on her nerves, well everyone had their vices. But this, this was bad, there was no way that Miranda wasn’t going to recognize Kara, especially after their conversation.

“Cat,” Miranda said, voice quiet and silky.

Cat looked towards the heavens. Oh no. “Yes, Miranda? Backing out of the dance off already?” She couldn’t play it off and she knew it, but maybe a breather would take everything down a notch.

“No, no, I’d very much like the answer to a question, though, before we engage in something frivolous.”

Cat dropped the mats on the couch and went to stand beside Miranda. “And that question would be?”

“How long have you known that your assistant is Supergirl?” Miranda turned, eyes like lasers, and it was a blessing that Kara was the only one who had heat vision.

Cat swallowed and widened her eyes. “What?” It was the worst way to avoid answering, but she needed to gather her thoughts, so it would have to do.

“You haven’t gone deaf, so I know you heard exactly what I said.”

“No, I haven’t.” Cat sighed. She wouldn’t lie to her and no matter what she said now, Miranda would still know Kara was Supergirl. “Whatever is said remains in the room, do we have an understanding?”

Miranda’s eyes lit up in triumph. That was as good as saying “Yes, Kara is Supergirl” to the other woman, but Miranda would want more than that. She considered for a moment and then nodded. “Yes, we do.”

“I’ve known basically since the first time she landed on my balcony. I had suspicions before that, but that was the first time I was certain. It’s a bit hard not to recognize your assistant of two years at point blank range even without glasses and a different hairstyle. There was a bit of confusion in there with a doppelganger and I’m still unaware of how that happened, and I’m dying to know, but it didn’t dissuade me. She’s all but told me at this point and I don’t think it will be long before she finally breaks down and adds me to her little Super Squad, as she calls it. She comes to me for advice all the time in costume or not.”

“And you were trying to keep her secret earlier.”

Cat nodded. “It’s as much to protect her as the ones she loves. As it is, I confirmed she was related to Superman and it brought a homicidal man to National City looking to kill Kara in order to make Superman feel pain. CatCo had to pay a few fines when he destroyed parts of a museum, and Kara destroyed a priceless statue in order to stop the man.”

Miranda hummed. “You didn’t lie, I suppose, she has been in the pages of CatCo.” She huffed out a breath. “Really, Cat, with how careful you are with words you should have become a lawyer.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more insulted in my life.” She made a gagging sounds. “Lawyers. Well, with the exception of Baby Lane.”

“Baby Lane?”

“Lois Lane’s little sister Lucy.”

“They loved alliteration in that family, didn’t they,” Miranda said, deadpan.

“Well what do you honestly expect from a more brawn than brains General,” Cat shot back.

They both grinned at each other for a moment before both of them turned serious again.

“I need to know I can trust you with this, Miranda. I know I personally can trust you, but this isn’t my secret. And god, it would be the story of a century.”

“But it’s not worth it,” Miranda said, finishing Cat’s thoughts. “This is a girl that you care about. It may not be your secret but it affects you just as much.”

“If anyone were to find out Supergirl is Kara, then all of CatCo would be in danger more than we already are. We’ve already lost an employee to a deranged alien who wanted to take over the world with mind control. He made three employees drop from separate balconies and she wasn’t able to catch all three of them. It would devastate-”

“Cat, did you not hear me? Do we need to get you that hearing test? I won’t tell a soul. Everything will be fine.” Miranda reached out to Cat and drew her into a gentle hug.

Cat was tense for just a second before relaxing into the hold. She could trust Miranda. Kara could trust Miranda. Everything was fine. Though if Agent Scully found out god knew what government hellhole bunker they would end up in. Better that that didn’t happen.

“Ok.” She sighed. “Ok.”

“Good.” Miranda stepped back. “Now, I believe you said something about dancing?”

Cat blinked, a bit taken aback by the sudden subject change, but also thoroughly relieved. “Yes, I believe I did.”

“Good. Because I’m already paying for lunch, I do believe that means I’m going to win so you have to buy dinner.”

“Who says you’re going to win, Priestly?” Cat cocked an eyebrow. 

“Twin daughters with an obsession with dance. Two, Cat, I think that means I have more practice than you.” Miranda’s eyes twinkled, and the smirk pulling at her lips was full of mischief. 

“They’re the same age, it’s not like you had two at different ages and therefore more years of practice.” Cat went over to the mats she had dumped off and started to set them up quickly. It had only taken an eye rolling seven year old Carter, and one “gosh mommy it’s easy to set up” before she’d read every single instruction manual for every piece of technology in their home, including his games. The millennials were not about to get that much of a one up on her. Besides, all it was, was a few cords in this case.

“No, no, I don’t think you understand. They got to switch and take breaks. I was never allowed that privilege. Three dances in and they’d switch out, three dances later, they’d switch again. Some nights I was not allowed a break until they had each danced against me four or five times. I wondered there for a small while why I even paid a personal trainer.”

“Yes, well, we’ll keep in mind who gave who basic ballroom dance lessons in our living room, hm?” Cat looked up with a smug smile.

Miranda narrowed her gaze. “Yes because dear old Mommy made you take the lessons, and you ended up enjoying them. Ballroom is expensive, darling. Not all of us had the privilege, or the access.”

“Well, it’s not as if you haven’t made up for it in the interim, darling.” Cat stood up from her preparations and flicked on the TV and turned it to the right channel. “Now, the real question here is best two of three or all out on one song?”

Miranda bit the inside of her lip, considering. “Two out of three, I think. That would be the fairest arrangement.”

“Miranda Priestly, going for the fairest option, someone alert the presses.” Cat stepped onto her mat and looked at the song choices, debating which one she should pull for.

Miranda lightly shoved Cat off her mat. “Page Six wouldn’t believe you anyway.”

“Page Six wouldn’t believe me? Miranda, you do realize how tremendously idiotic that would be on their part, yes?” Cat fixed her mat and got back on it again.

“They are idiots.” 

“Fair point there. I can’t throw too many stones considering my history, but gossip writers scrape the bottom of the talent barrel, especially these days.” She tapped the down arrow a few times. “Now, which song first?”

Miranda tapped through all the choices slowly. “This is a different version than the twins own, but I believe this one will suffice.”

Cat was secretly pleased with Miranda’s selection, it was one of her better songs, but still she couldn’t resist the jibe. “Love Shack, really? Didn’t you have enough of hair spray and desperation in the eighties?”

“I think we all know I had enough hair spray, but yes, really, Cat. Even eighties hair bands are better than the drivel they listen to now.”

“There’s decent music, just not on the radio, or really on this game, but we digress.” Cat punched the enter button on the song and it took them to the difficulty screen. Without even asking Cat hit expert. If Miranda was as good as she said then she could keep up and if not then Miranda’s pride wouldn’t take as much of a hit competing on expert level.

“Think you can keep up?”

Cat scoffed, “Please, think you can keep up with me in your old age?”

“Pot, kettle,” Miranda said as the first arrows appeared on the screen.

After that they didn’t speak. Cat focused solely on hitting every step perfectly. God knows her perfectionist streak and ability to multitask quickly made this game easier for sure. As long as she completely tuned out Miranda and just went for it she should be fine.

She felt confident as her perfect streak kept going and felt victory in her grasp. Which was of course the moment twenty arrows seemed to come up at once and she missed a few steps. She cursed quietly, but being close Miranda heard and laughed.

“Now who can’t keep up?”

Cat just gritted her teeth and got back on the horse, hitting every step with the sort of precision that went into CatCo. If she was going to lose she wasn’t going to lose by much, damn it. And maybe, maybe if she was lucky Miranda would slip up as well and they would be on even ground again.

The song ended, though, and Miranda had a perfect game. Cat frowned loudly but just nodded.

“Well then, the girls did you a favor I see.”

“More than one, but in this case, yes.” Miranda smiled smugly, but she still reached for Cat’s hand and squeezed. “And your next song choice, darling?” 

Cat thought for a second, scrolling through the choices slowly, thinking about the ones she had done on expert before with Carter multiple times. Love Shack had been her best, true, but she was also very good at the few others. And what she could put her mind to she could win, her career was more than enough to show that.

“Battlefield, I think.” Cat punched the select button and hit expert. “Ready to get beaten?”

Miranda winked. “That’s what you said last time but we saw who came out on top, dear.”

Cat had the urge to stick her tongue out at Miranda but she restrained because she was not a child. And the arrows had started to appear on screen so she couldn’t afford the lapse in concentration anyway.

The song progressed and Cat was doing well, she was hitting all her steps as perfects. She was determined that she was going to win this one at least. She wasn’t about to get utterly obliterated. 

“Sure you don’t want to mess up, Catherine?” Miranda asked, smirk in her voice.

“I’ll make you pay for the Catherine later, but no I think I’ll complete this run perfectly.” She punched out a particularly difficult combination with a smile.

Miranda laughed. “I recall liking punishments from you.”

At that Cat almost slipped up. Almost. She saved herself at the last minute and shook her head slightly to dislodge the rather steamy memories that had played behind her eyelids when she blinked. 

A flurry of movement from them both and the round was over, both halves announcing they’d hit every step. Cat’s score flashed brighter though, declaring her the winner by only a few hundred points. Her heart leapt seeing the results.

“Haha!” She wiggled her hips and did a little spin before pointing at Miranda. “Take that!”

Miranda rolled her eyes. “How mature of you.”

“And you gloating to Irv’s face was mature?” Cat cocked an eyebrow.

Miranda shrugged. “Hmm. He is a child, and should be treated as such.”

“Stooping to his level, really?” Cat scrolled through the songs once again trying to decide on a tie breaker.

“No, just using vocabulary that a child might understand.”

“Mhm, right.” Cat debated for a second before hitting random. “Since we’ve both chosen a song random should be fair for the third, yes?”

“That’s fine.”

“Need a glass of water before we begin?”

“I’ll get one after I win.” Miranda brushed delicately at her brow.

“Not sweating already are we?” Cat grimaced inwardly as “Crazy Love” popped up as the song choice. It was brutally fast and Carter hated it. She hadn’t done it much. This wasn’t boding well for her chances of winning, but damn it she was Cat Grant she wasn’t about to give up.

“Of course not. I don’t sweat, I glow.”

“Hmm, you most certainly do, but really that trite line. I know you can do better.” 

“I have more on my mind, like winning this song.”

The arrows came flying onto the screen and Cat scrambled to catch up. Her perfect streak wasn’t going to last on this song and she knew it. But from the quiet cursing from Miranda indicated that she wasn’t the only one that was struggling. It was going to be an interesting finish at least.

Sweat was actually forming on Cat’s brow as they hit the halfway point and her heart was beating in her chest. For a two minute song it was definitely a work out. It was ridiculous, this competition, but also there was a huge smile on her face and she knew it. She didn’t mind it. Having fun with people she loved was to be treasured. Miranda laughed beside her. They were both enjoying this. And so Cat smiled wider.

The song came to an end and Cat held her breath. But then Miranda’s number lit up and she sighed. Well, at least she had won one. It wasn’t like paying for dinner was going to break her bank. She liked treating those she loved anyway.

“Oh hell, I actually am rather shocked.” Miranda was breathing heavily, her hands up atop her head, and a smile on her face. “The girls don’t like songs they can’t get in a few sessions.”

“Carter doesn’t either.” Cat snorted. “After that I don’t blame him.”

“Neither do I.” Miranda turned and grinned at Cat. “But I still won so you’re paying for dinner.” She stepped closer. “And I believe there’s something more that I’m owed as well.”

Cat stepped even closer to Miranda. “Yes, there is. I think you should come take it.”

Miranda’s hands came up and cupped Cat’s face gently and tilted her head back just slightly. Her thumbs traced over Cat’s cheekbones. Cat shivered gently under her touch, heart beating even harder now. 

Miranda leaned down and brushed her lips across Cat’s. Cat’s breath hitched from the brief contact and she surged forward, desperate for more. Miranda met her halfway, lips claiming Cat’s thoroughly. Cat sighed into the kiss. Her hands came to rest on Miranda’s hips, drawing Miranda into her. She remembered this feeling of not being able to get close enough. She had missed it and didn’t at the same time. If only she could melt into Miranda, if only when they were kissing.

They pulled apart after a few long minutes. Cat was slow to open her eyes, savoring the last few tingles of the kiss. The sight she was greeted with, Miranda slightly flushed, hair just a little mussed, was almost enough to send her back into Miranda’s arms. But she stopped herself. They weren’t going to get anywhere by rushing into things. First dates had kisses, but they shouldn’t have more, especially with the history between them. So this would suffice for now.

Cat cleared her throat. “Well, I think that was more than worth the price of a dinner.”

“Yes, I suppose it was.” Miranda smiled that gentle smile that Cat knew the public never saw. “Worth a few dinners at that.”

Cat chuckled as she slowly withdrew from Miranda’s light hold. “Don’t push your luck. We’ll have to find some other competition to see who buys the next one.”

“As long as it’s not a drinking contest, we all know how that ended. Besides, my feelings on alcohol have been made quite clear.”

Cat groaned. “Don’t remind me, we were both miserable that weekend. Why did we even start that in the first place?” She settled onto the couch, smiling softly when Miranda joined her.

Miranda waved her hands about slightly. “I don’t know. It’s lost to the mists of time now. Or more like the mists of alcohol. We drank almost a bottle of vodka each. I don’t know how we were alive at the end of it.” 

“Stubborn will and a good alcohol tolerance.”

“And youth probably had something to do with it.” 

“I suppose that must have played a role. It’s not like I don’t have alcohol tolerance now, but a bottle is still going to turn my liver to liquid.” Moreso now that Kara had replaced her ice in her office minibar with M&Ms.

“Common sense in the twenties is so hard to come by.”

Cat snorted and nodded along. “Sometimes I wonder how Kara gets through a day. She has a good head on her shoulders but some days…” she trailed off laughing softly. She sighed after a second. If only… 

Miranda reached over and squeezed Cat’s hand. “I know.” It was so simple for Miranda to convey so much in so few words. Cat looked up into her eyes and saw that she understood the longing, of course she did, they had already discussed it, but getting hit with it in the middle of a good time, well that was different and yet she was still understood.

“I’m sorry, I just--” 

Miranda cut Cat off. “There’s no need to apologize. You can care for more than two people at once. Just because you happened to think of Kara during a date of ours doesn’t mean that you care for me any less.”

“You know most people would think that they were the second choice.” Cat swallowed. She hoped that wasn’t the case but if Miranda did think that she had somewhat of a leg to stand on.

“I think we’re equal choices. And most people don’t have the sort of history we do anyway.

“Heaven and earth,” Cat sighed, relaxing back into the couch again.

“How many times are you going to say that before you get tired of it?” Miranda huffed.

“Until it becomes cliche and then I’ll rephrase it.” Cat grinned. “You’ll never get away from it, not really.”

“Exactly why did I sign up for this again.” Miranda leaned over and put her head on Cat’s shoulder.

“Because, Miranda, we both know that there’s an understanding of life between us. And because the love between us never really died. Both are good enough on their own, don’t you think?”

“I do.”

They sat quietly for a while, Miranda’s head on Cat’s shoulder and their hands joined. Cat felt her eyes drooping. The day had been long and emotional and she needed sleep most definitely, but she didn’t want their date to end. She debated for a long, long moment before she drew in a deep breath.

“It’s late, stay in the guest room?” she asked quietly, hoping that Miranda would. It would be an end, but at least they would be under the same roof.

After a few moments Miranda murmured against her shoulder. “You’d have to loan me some necessities, and I’ll have to leave god awfully early in the morning.”

“I have the necessities and you already get up before the crack of dawn anyway.”

“Fair enough. Do we have to get off the couch yet?” Miranda asked, yawning softly at the end.

“I think if we don’t get up we aren’t going to manage it tonight.”

“Mmm. I could survive a night on a couch with you by my side.”

“It’s expensive enough it probably wouldn’t kill us. But we still have to remove our makeup at least and we’d have to get up for that. We might as well get a bed out of that instead of a couch.”

“I miss the days where I could sleep in my makeup and not feel as guilty. Youth.” Miranda levered herself up from the sofa before turning and holding a hand out for Cat.

Cat took the offered hand and pulled herself up. “I’ll get you some pajamas. The bathroom should have everything you need to get ready for bed even if it’s not your preferred brand.”

Miranda followed her back into the bedroom, standing in the doorway as Cat rummaged around in a drawer and pulled out two pairs of silk pajamas. Miranda walked over and took the pajamas from Cat. She leaned in and kissed Cat’s cheek.

“Goodnight, darling,” Miranda whispered in Cat’s ears.

“You know where to find me if there’s anything you need,” Cat replied, a little breathlessly.

“I do. I’ll be sure to say my goodbyes before I leave. We will meet at twelve thirty for lunch in front of your building.”

“I’ll see you in the morning. Is there a chance you could stay long enough for a quick bite to eat, or do you have leave early to make up for your unexpected extended absence?”

“I won’t say no to coffee as we both know.” Miranda smiled. “See you in the morning.” She walked out the door and Cat sighed heavily. She wished that Miranda was staying in her room, but there would be time for that later. She shook her head and started to get ready for bed.

 

\--

 

The next morning Cat woke up to a hand running through her hair gently. She groaned and slowly blinked her eyes a few times to chase away the last edges of sleep. “Nnnnn.”

“Good morning, darling.”

“Not morning yet. Get back in bed,” Cat mumbled, pulling on Miranda’s hand.

“Yes, it’s morning, just because your version of morning isn’t five A.M. doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”

“Too early, Miranda. You aren’t dressed yet so get in here until at least six.”

Miranda hesitated for a long second and Cat knew she had her if she pushed just a bit more. “Please, dearheart?” 

Miranda was getting in bed beside her the next second. “You play dirty, Grant.”

“I know, but so do you.” 

The other woman scooted under the covers and wrapped herself around Cat. “True. I’m only staying here until five thirty. Then coffee and leaving. Some of us have to get back to their hotel before the press figure out I was gone all night, and then get ready for another day in high fashion.”

Cat gripped Miranda’s arms lightly as she snuggled in. “I’ll take what I can get.” 

She relaxed and drifted almost instantly back to sleep, comfortable and warm as she was. It had always been a struggle to fall asleep in other people’s arms but never in Miranda’s. She molded to Cat like she belonged nowhere else and Cat could relax knowing she was safe. It seemed that that hadn’t changed over the years.

When Miranda woke her up again with a kiss on the cheek, Cat was a little more with it.

“Morning,” she whispered, turning in Miranda’s arms to face her.

“Not exactly bright eyed and bushy tailed but you’re moving this time,” Miranda teased.

“I moved last time.”

“Only to pull me into bed.”

Cat rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She leaned forward and kissed Miranda and it didn’t matter that both of them had morning breath or that it was entirely too early to leave a bed as comfortable as this, it was still perfect. 

She pulled back after a minute. “I’ll put on coffee. Go get ready. Unlike you I don’t have to be anywhere until a normal hour.”

Miranda rolled out of bed and padded off towards the guest room while Cat stretched in her bed. Well, she hadn’t gotten the whole night, but a morning was good enough. A morning was taking it slowly enough for her tastes. She got up and walked down the hall towards the kitchen and flipped her ridiculously complicated coffee machine on. It would make her and Miranda lattes that were center of the sun hot in no time.

She sat on one of the stools from the night before, looking at the plates from dinner with a frown. She hated to leave such a big mess for her maid, but she supposed a nice bonus for the day would make up for it.

Miranda came just as the coffee was done. She grabbed down two mugs and poured them both a cup before sitting down beside Cat. Cat physically curled herself around the warm porcelain and sighed at the first sip. The first cup of coffee was always an almost religious experience. They sat in silence and enjoyed their coffee. It felt like they’d been doing just this for all twenty-six years they’d been apart. It seemed to be a common thing for them, this feeling of comfort.

When the coffee was gone Miranda rounded up her things and Cat walked her to the door, still in her pajamas. Miranda slipped on her heels and smirked as she rose up four more inches, now almost half a foot taller than Cat. 

Cat frowned and rolled her eyes but said nothing. She was perfectly average in height. Other people seemed to forget that. But still she tilted her head back without a fight and kissed Miranda goodbye.

“See you this afternoon, darling,” Miranda said before opening the door and stepping out into the hallway.

“See you.” She watched Miranda get in the elevator before closing her door quietly. Oh, was she in over her head already. She had been from the start. 

 

\--

 

She strutted onto the floor of CatCo only a little earlier than her scheduled time. It would keep the masses on their toes, if only a little, which pleased her. Kara popped up from seemingly nowhere as she was wont to do and Cat grimaced inwardly. She was about to make Kara’s day infinitely more difficult with the rescheduling of her lunch meeting, but she knew the girl would handle it. And if the fact that Kara looked like a kicked puppy for half a second after she issued her first orders for the day broke her heart a little bit, well no one knew but her.

She walked into her office and sighed at the pile of work. She still had to write up the notes from her interview with Miranda yesterday. She hadn’t really gotten enough to do the piece, but she knew enough about Miranda’s life that she could fill in some blanks now and with this new turn in their relationship it wasn’t like she couldn’t ask via text or at dinner if she truly was stumped. But even before she focused on that, there were a million other things that needed done before lunch today. She loved her work, of course she did, she was the boss, but on some days she wished she was irresponsible enough to skip out on a day or two here and there and not just a lunch appointment every blue moon.

But she sat down anyway because that wasn’t who she was, and plowed through some accounting reports that she was sure were going to get someone fired for incompetence. She kept looking up from the numbers to see Kara scowling at her computer, no doubt trying to rearrange her schedule. At least twice the phone had been slammed down onto the base and Cat was amazed at the control Kara had to slam something but not break it. Though she had seen the requisition forms for new phones on several occasions, so the control wasn’t perfect. She wished she could do something about it, but that wasn’t her job. If she was right that was now Andy’s job. Cat gripped her pen a bit harder and went back to work.

Lunch thankfully came quickly thanks to the pile of work at least. Cat stood up at twelve ten and gathered her purse and heels. She strode out of the office and stopped by Kara’s desk, looking down at Kara’s latest email and then back up at Kara. It stung a bit that Kara hadn’t popped her head in and told her about the schedule changes. She hadn’t been in a horrible mood today, she hadn’t snapped at the girl, well too horribly anyway, so why the avoidance? She couldn’t deny that it had made her day a little dimmer. She was over her head here too, but she could control this.

So her exit speech to Kara was a bit snappier than usual to raise her walls again. But when she hit the elevator and looked back at Kara who was frowning once more she sighed. How exactly was she supposed to balance all of this? She supposed how she’d been balancing the entire two years, but that hadn't been balance. She had been falling for Kara these past two years, getting closer and closer to an edge she did and didn’t want to drop off. And now with Miranda and Andy in the mix how in the world would everything settle?

She slipped her sunglasses on as the elevator doors started to close and she glimpsed Andy herself making her way towards Kara’s desk. Kara brightened visibly when Andy came into her line of sight. And she supposed that’s how it would settle. And her heart ached. As it had for years now.

When she reached the bottom floor and strode out into the bright day Miranda was already there, looking slightly annoyed.

“You’re late,” she said a bit of ice in her voice.

Cat looked at her watch. It was twelve seventeen. In Miranda’s world she was indeed late. “I am.” She sighed heavily. “I had to stop and talk to Kiera and tell her that her avoidance tactics wouldn’t be tolerated.”

That pulled Miranda up short from whatever barb had been launched Cat’s way. “Avoidance tactics?”

Cat hummed her affirmation. “She tried to email me my updated schedule instead of coming in and reading it to me like normal. Though I suppose I invited it considering I told her I hadn’t forgotten yesterday with her and Andy and that we would be discussing that. Later tonight, even.” She resisted the urge to run her hand through her hair. She hadn’t spent thirty minutes on it to mess it up now. “But normally my snippy moments don’t intimidate her so I suppose it was just…” She shrugged.

“A shock to the system.”

“Something like that.” Cat led the way to her town car which was idling by the curb as instructed. She opened the door for Miranda and motioned her in. Miranda slid in with an upturn of her lips in thanks and Cat got in after her.

The second the door was closed Miranda’s hand was in hers. Miranda brought it up to her lips and pressed a gentle kiss to her palm. “Perhaps she’s feeling guilty because she actually feels as if she’s done something wrong this time.”

Cat considered that for a moment, relaxing into the leather seats. “Maybe. I can’t think that she doesn’t take everything at least a little personally considering who Kara is, but she did look guilty.”

“Perhaps you should ask her later tonight? However you would like to go about that, I think it might do both of you good.”

“Maybe, but what if it doesn’t? I do have a track record of making things worse.” Or what if it did go right and what if that led them somewhere. Then again, who was she really kidding.

“You have a hard head, you’ll get your way if you want it.”

Cat rolled her eyes. “The hard head is the problem and you know it.” She leaned over and kissed Miranda’s cheek gently. Thank god for non-disclosure agreements. If her driver opened his mouth he would be buried in lawsuits before he got the first sentence out.

“Well, perhaps, but I’m going for a pep-talk, darling.” Miranda turned her head and kissed Cat honestly. “Now, where are we going exactly?”

At that Cat grinned. “Well, you said you enjoy steak for lunch so I booked us a table at Cut.”

Miranda licked her lips. “I do appreciate Wolfgang’s work.”

Cat laughed. “I figured you would.” She leaned her head on Miranda’s shoulder. This lunch break was just what she needed in the middle of today.

“Well, you do know me well enough.”

They settled into silence for the rest of the car ride, just enjoying the other’s presence. It was the perfect counterpoint to their busy days. Cat felt as if she could fall asleep right here and sleep soundly for a good few hours at least. With the way National City traffic moved sometimes it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. But today it was moving fairly well and they arrived at the restaurant in good time.

Miranda stepped out of the car first and offered her hand to Cat. Cat slid over and pulled herself up and out of the car gracefully. She squeezed Miranda’s hand once before letting go.

“Thank you, dear.”

Miranda just smiled and led them into the restaurant. One of the perks to being famous was never actually needing to give a name at restaurants. The maitre’d looked up, nodded and led them to a secluded table, no questions asked. Once they were seated a waiter was at their table a second later with a wine list and the specials for the day. 

Cat just smiled as Miranda shut the man up mid-word with, “New York strip, medium rare, the Waygu, and some of the kale dish on the side.”

Cat looked over the menu quickly and decided the hell with it for one meal. “The filet and the mac’n’cheese.” Miranda would probably steal some anyway. No carbs her ass.

When they were alone again Cat looked over at Miranda and smirked. “So, how are things in fashion today?”

Miranda just groaned quietly for a long moment. “You just had to ask, didn’t you.”

“I did. I want to hear all about whatever idiot screwed things up today.”

“Idiots. Plural.” Miranda pinched at the bridge of her nose before she launched into a story involving the whole of the beauty department, some of the art department, and two incompetent photographers assistants that had managed to royally screw up a photoshoot almost beyond repair. Cat found herself snickering at the most inappropriate places, but Miranda’s eyes were smiling too, even if her tone was completely exasperated. Business was business, but once things were fixed they were funny, in hindsight at least.

And that conversation led into Cat’s day which had been a lot less exciting considering it dealt mostly with paperwork, which led into commiserating about the paperwork that went along with their jobs, and into a dozen other subjects that flowed through their lunch hour. Miranda did indeed steal a few bites of the mac’n’cheese. Cat in turn stole some of the kale, but it wasn’t quite as good, though for kale, it was excellent.

When the bill came Miranda took it up easily and smirked at Cat. “Dinner tomorrow night? I have a gala to attend tonight, but you have to pay up on our bet some time. Bring your wallet.”

Cat rolled her eyes. “I was planning on it. I remember our bet. Next time we’re playing Settlers of Catan and then we’ll see who wins.”

Miranda’s head tilted to the side. “You’ll have to teach me first. I have no idea what that is.”

“Now that is a travesty. It’s one of the better board games out there.” And she was absolutely lethal at it. Though considering Miranda had the same planning ability as she did it might actually be a challenge with Miranda. Hmm, that sounded pleasant, actually.

“Well then, I look forward to it. Perhaps if I enjoy it I can get a copy to share with the girls.”

They walked back to the car together, close, but not touching. National City had paparazzi everywhere, especially around extremely expensive restaurants that celebrities might frequent. Cat could see a few cameras, and felt herself turn stiff and business-like as Miranda did the same beside her. There wouldn’t be any door holding, or casual brushing of hands while getting into the car, and it made Cat’s heart twist a little. But they couldn’t see inside the car so this was only temporary.

“Vultures, all of them,” Miranda huffed once the door was shut and they were on their way.

“Yes, I try not to buy from the filth when I can.” She made a disgusted noise. “People deserve at least some privacy.”

“I wonder what they’re going to try and spin from the photos.” Miranda growled. “I swear I will bring the wrath of The Dragon upon them if I hear one word about the divorce. Honestly, siding with Stephen’s disgusting ways when it’s been publicly shown in court that he’s a pig is lower than the garbage I already knew they were.”

“Maybe they’ll make up a story about us plotting the bastard’s death.”

At that Miranda actually laughed. “I mean, if you know a discreet hitman, I might not say no.”

“I do have enough connections to find one.” Cat grinned and pulled Miranda closer to her. “We should thank him, really. If he wasn’t an ass we wouldn’t be here.” 

Miranda settled into her. “You’re right I suppose. But about that hitman…”

Cat chuckled. “I’ll get right on that.”

“Thank you.” Miranda kissed Cat’s neck and Cat shivered in response.

The car ride passed quickly again and Cat found herself not wanting to leave the car even as it pulled up to CatCo. She sighed as she opened the door and slid out. This time she offered her hand to Miranda with a smile.

“My, chivalry isn’t dead.”

“In women maybe, men, well that’s heavily debatable.” Cat cocked an eyebrow.

Miranda laughed freely. “And so it is.” She sighed. “I suppose this is where we say goodbye. I would rather spend my time with you instead of with idiots who prove Murphy’s Law right.”

This time it was Cat’s turn to laugh. “Don’t take them anywhere near National City. They would get caught up in the latest alien disaster.”

“God knows most of them won’t go anywhere on my dime anymore. They’ll be fired when I return.” Miranda stepped forward and kissed Cat’s cheeks. Cat returned the contact, sighing quietly. Cheek kisses weren’t what she really wanted, but they would do for now.

They pulled apart slowly. Cat let her hands rest on Miranda’s forearms, unable to let go just yet. “Tomorrow then, but you will call me after you’re done with your gala?” She had a feeling she would need to talk to Miranda after talking to Kara, hopefully just to debrief, but it may be another emotional talk and Miranda was the only safe option for such things. She really did feel safe with the other woman.

“Of course. I’ll let you know if I can’t for any reason. If not, there is texting, though it is a poor substitute.” Miranda squeezed Cat’s arms gently before stepping back.

“Tonight then.” And with one last smile Cat turned and walked into CatCo. There was the rest of the work day to attend to and then the conversation with Kara. Oh, if only life was only nice meals and car rides with people she cared about. 

She was going to need an Advil when she got back to the office. Wonderful, the relaxation from lunch had evaporated already. She rolled her eyes and stalked to her private elevator. Maybe she could fire someone in accounting and feel better. Now that plan had some merit. And she could tell Miranda the story later. A smile came back onto her face as her elevator doors closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eek! Look at our beautiful ladies!  
> We hope you enjoyed it and will let us know!  
> Chapter 5 will have some new twists and turns, so we hope you'll stick around!  
> Lots of Love,  
> CBC and Inkheart9459

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews are loved and appreciated!  
> This is the first fic that Inkheart9459 and I have ever written together.  
> We'd love to hear what you have to say!  
> If you catch a typo let us know also!  
> It's also posted on FFnet under Inkheart9459's profile.
> 
> Lots of love!  
> CBC and Inkheart9459


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